CURTAIN CALLS
by saj aneri
Summary: James and Lily are together at last. Now, paranoia and jealousy has come aboard! But something else is looming just overhead... a dark power determined to create a war between good and evil. R&R! HumorRomanceAngst
1. Prologue

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I PICKED HIM UP AND CRADLED HIM LIKE MY OWN, TRYING TO SUBSIDE HIS TEARS.

Oh, hi there! Hi! Remember me? Geez, I hope you haven't forgotten this poor little soul just trying to find a little audience for a story.

It's been more than a year since I wrote the words "The End" for Oblivious. I remember Order of the Phoenix was being released that month.

*Sigh* I've been dying to scream this out (though technically, it's 'write') since that day I finished reading Book Five (courtesy of my good friend, mutsumi: Sirius is not dead! I won't have it! Such a majestic way to die, if you ask me (My, I'm being sarcastic again…). He deserves something more heroic. Anyway, I love his character. But I can understand if any one of you out there finds him extremely annoying. We're still tight, though, right? Alright?

Okay, on to this sequel… I have to tell you the truth, I'm not yet finished with the whole story, but I'm already done about midway through.

Oh man, I don't know what more to say. It's nine o'clock in the evening and I haven't had my dinner yet, so I hope you forgive me if I just end my – uh, kind of long introduction here and leave you with my story.

the tension is here... between who you are and who you could be... between how it is and how it should be... -- switchfoot, "dare you to move"

~*~*~*~

**Prologue**

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May 18, 1977

I saw him again tonight. Lately, I'm starting to feel like I'm supposed to know him. But… I don't. No matter how long I lie in my bed thinking of the endless possibilities where I'd met him… nothing. He's like a forgotten memory. He's a complete stranger – who knew me. Is this real? I know it's not – it's not supposed to be. But why am I afraid? My whole body shakes as if cold blanketed itself around me every time he visits my thoughts.

It feels real.

And I hate it.

I've never felt more helpless and hopeless in all my years. I'm seeing more and more every day. It seems like there's a certain power that wants me to feed on this, one at a time. But every single time, it ends the same. I die. I'm dead. Though this feels so concrete, I just hope this isn't what the future holds for me.

I saw even more just moments ago. This time, it started with a cold and rainy night. There was a thunderstorm, I remember. But I was already scared—not of the storm, but of something else, something bigger, powerful, and mostly frightening.

I was in the same room where everything would end eventually. I was waiting. I know I was. I just don't know for what… or for whom. But the anxiety was overwhelming. I felt like I was standing over the edge of a cliff while someone was incessantly trying to push me to jump… or else.

And then, the lights went off. My heart pounded as if it was literally trying to pump its way out of my chest. I was terrified. But at the same time, an overwhelming sadness was creeping into me. A life ended just seconds before everything went black. A life of someone so close to me. I didn't know whom, I didn't know how. But I felt it – a sudden void inside me.

Then, the windows suddenly shut. Dark magic was looming all over the place. Everything was banging on the walls. I almost felt the earth shaking beneath me… or was it my knees that couldn't hold themselves straight up anymore?

Deadly silence.

It was happening again.

Just then, I heard a loud crying. It was a baby. I walked to the crib fixed in the center of the bedroom. A boy. A little boy.A helpless little baby boy. I looked at him cry, seeming like he was mourning. Was this my son? I always felt connected to him. But to be my son? True, he had the face of someone I know – someone so familiar to me. But does that say anything for him to be my child? Though, in any way, I just had to get him out of there… but where were we to go? We were trapped.

I picked him up and cradled him like my own, trying to subside his tears.

I was about to run for the door when he—the being who's void of any human emotion—banged the door open and stood menacingly in my way. I knew this was going to be the end.

And then… that was it. Everything would always stop there. And the next thing I can remember, I was lying on the floor – lifeless. The baby was now defenseless as the cloaked figure slowly glided towards him. I heard the monster's cruel laugh, knowing that nothing stood in his way now.

He raised his wand… and pointed… at my son.

He bellowed an Unforgivable and then a flash of blinding light.

I wake up.

Until now, I wonder what happens after. Or if ever it will ever be shown to me. And if not, I just wish that these dreams would stop. Or I'll drive myself insane soon enough.

Lily

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~*~*~*~

in restless dreams i walked alone... the narrow streets of cobblestone... 'neath the halo of a street lamp... i turned my collar to the cold and damp... when my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light... that split the night... and touched the sound... of silence... -- simon and garfunkel, "sound of silence"

There it is! The Prologue for my next story. I'm so happy I'm finally able to upload it. Anyway, about Chapter One… I guess it'll take about a couple of weeks before I upload it. Uploading will be taking quite a while nowadays 'cos I am currently a young overworked underpaid professional. Hmmm… I don't want to rant about my life so, 'till next time…!

Oh yeah, I know you would want to know why "Curtain Calls." Well… maybe I'll explain it when I upload Chapter One. Heehee…

Hey, don't forget to leave a review. Thanks!


	2. Something Evil This Way Comes

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YOU MEAN FRIGHTENED? SCARED OUT OF HER WITS. WE'RE GOING TO DIE…!

Let me take a deep breath…

Obviously, it took me longer than I expected to update this story. Sorry. If you can notice the scrollbar there at the right… this chapter is quite long. I didn't realize that until I noticed that, hey, I seem to could never finish this chapter. After finishing this I thought about cutting it up into two – you know, making the second part chapter two. But no, I changed my mind.

I could've uploaded this chapter sooner but I just saw The Notebook last night… couldn't sleep, that's love – is all I can say.

Anyway, back to this. I won't bother you with more, so I'll leave you with chapter one, after a brief thank you to my readers… wonderful people, you are.

shrk-bait

Anarane

Aspiring Shieldmaiden

Cecilia – yeah, this story takes place in the seventh year, still.

angkat14

Lily Natalia Evans

Linker27 – my names mean… oh it's nothing. 'saj' is from Sagittarius while aneri is a mix match of the last five letters of my real name.

mutsumi – miss you, too!

lilbird

Tasz

Nethwen

By the way, JK Rowling owns everything that you recognize and the rest are mine.

so kep me... in your bed... all day... nothing heals me like you do... -- heather nova, "london rain"

~*~*~*~

**CHAPTER ONE: Something Evil This Way Comes**

"Harry!"

A sudden terrified scream resounded in the soundless air of the room. James Potter was lying sleepily in the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts when he sat up hastily as he felt the rapids of adrenaline start surging through him. "What's going on? What happened?" he stuttered, struggling to locate his glasses from the bedside table while hurriedly trying to put it on simultaneously. As his vision started to clear, he recognized the girl who cried him to consciousness. On the bed beside his, Lily Evans was sitting with a panicked-stricken face, trying to catch her breath.

While still trying to coordinate himself, he got out of his bed and then sat beside her. "Are you alright?" he asked with apparent concern in his voice.

Lily woke up with her heart racing of fear. And though for a second, everything was a blur, she felt strands of sweat drip on her face. She quickly turned to her surroundings wanting to find out where she was and realized that she was in the school's hospital. _I'm alright_, she thought and then recognized a certain boy was sitting next to her, looking at her curiously. She closed her eyes momentarily to get herself together and then said, "Yes," realizing that James just asked her a question. "I'm… fine."

"Are you sure? You look… sick."

Aah… James Potter. Never could get used to him even if one tried hard to. Lily gazed at his now calming face and thought for a while what she was doing in the Hospital Wing in the first place. Then she remembered the other night. As if soaking in the rain was not a good reason enough to end up at the infirmary, she kissed James Potter – of course it wasn't because she kissed _James_. It was more so because the boy was burning up at that time and it was a given that when they arrived from the heavy downpour, the school nurse, Madame Prenny, insisted – no, _commanded_ – that she stayed, too because "I _am_ sick. As I remember, you passed the bug you were carrying to me."

"Well, who told you to kiss me?" James blurted out in fake astonishment.

"I dunno. My other self?"

"I see you kids are doing fine," a voice echoed through the room. They looked up and saw the school nurse carrying a tray that was holding their breakfast. "You're arguing," she continued, pointing out the fact that it was part of the universal norm that they argue. Period. And if suddenly, they got along, somehow, the balance of the universe had gone upside down – they were sick, for one. She decided to lay the tray on Lily's bed since both of them were already there. "Eat up, now. Don't waste anything. I don't want to see anything left on that tray when I come back."

"But, you'll be needing the spoons and bowls back, won't you?" James teased, smiling widely at her.

Madame Prenny shook her head. "Don't start with me," she said, with her finger pointing warningly at him. But she couldn't help but smile back at the boy who just recently, virtually became a regular resident in the medical wing.

A few months ago, specifically just days before Christmas, James realized – _realized_ ­– that he was in love with Lily Evans. Why realized? Everybody knew that he was in love with the girl. He was just oblivious enough to be so utterly unaware of it. Shallow James became lovesick but this time, his charisma and winning smile wouldn't even get past the hair of Lily. He was devastated. So devastated he was that, a few days ago, he went down with flu after deciding to soak in the rain following a Quidditch practice. Depressed and suicidal – not a very wonderful combination.

What he didn't know was that Lily fell for him during the course of their holiday break when he sent her a letter every night. He didn't get a single reply – maybe that was why he was, again, unaware – at least not a reply an owl flew him. It was handed him by the girl herself, when he ended up in the infirmary, after drenching and then hallucinating on the power of the Memory Charm spell to make him forget that he loved her.

So, after another life-changing _realization_, he got out of bed – still in his pajamas and still with his woozy head that felt heavy as a rock (he tried jumping once just to prove to the school nurse that he was ready to get out of the hospital and ended up trying to catch his head as he wailed in pain) – and escaped from the watchful eyes of Madame Prenny to find Lily.

It turned out that she, too, escaped from Hogwarts so he followed her and, again, soaked in the rain while shouting 'Lily Evans' out in the streets of the village. And then, the rest was, as they say, history.

"So," James started, getting a hold of a bowl and handing it over to Lily, "who's Harry?"

"No one. I don't know," Lily replied thoughtlessly, apparently still dazed from her dream. Then she paused as if something just popped in her head. She realized what James was saying. She looked at him in complete innocence and confusion at the same time. "Who's Harry?" In expounded terms, 'what the hell are you talking about?'

James chuckled. It seemed to him that Lily was still rattled, so he decided to drop the subject instead.

* * * * *

That morning, Remus Lupin was about to enter the Transfiguration classroom. Just like any other day, he was planning on settling in his seat until McGonagall tapped her wand on the desk, signaling the start of the class. But today, he snappishly stopped at the door and was surprised to see… chaos. Chaos before the start of class could've been very normal – but chaos before McGonagall's class… It. Was. Not. Possible.

"What in the world…?" he mumbled, before he dodged a paper plane zooming towards him. He turned around making sure he was in the right classroom. Yes, he was in the correct class, alright. But the scene was just as peculiar as him strolling under the full moon (for a werewolf, that wasn't a very bright idea).

The students were noisy, – more than usual – running around, sitting on tables – this would be McGonagall's nightmare – and lo and behold, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew were even in front of the class playing with the paper planes that were flying all over the room. It wasn't like they actually behaved themselves in McGonagall's class – or in any class for that matter – but they wouldn't go horsing around in her classroom. It seemed that the only 'behaving' students in the room were Lucius Malfoy and his cohorts – probably thinking that this was all too childish for them.

"Weird…" another voice mumbled beside him. He turned and saw Kiara, with Toni and Vince, just as in awe as he was five seconds ago. "McGonagall's never been late. At all. Like not. Ever."

"Yeah, I get your point," Toni answered, getting in the room. Somehow, she didn't mind all the commotion happening inside. Maybe not all… She stopped in her tracks when she saw the person at the front of the class. "Tell me he's not playing with paper airplanes…" she muttered to Kiara, not taking her eyes off Sirius.

Kiara stood beside her friend and took a breath, sounding like she was going to summon a spell of some sort. "He's not playing with paper airplanes." She paused and then smiled at Toni. "Sorry, didn't work. I don't have that kind of magic."

"You know, actually, it's parchment," Vince joined in, feeling a bit clever at that time, enjoying the mixed reactions on Toni's face. "So technically, it's parchment planes—"

"Does it matter?" Toni butted in before he could continue his awful ingenuity. "It's paper— Th— Wh— Uh, thirteen-year-olds don't even do this anymore," she insisted trying not to feel crazy to be going out with someone who played with _parchment_ aircrafts as a pastime.

"You'll be surprised," Remus said, like giving a sign of caution in bright blinking red lights.

Then, as if Sirius felt Toni's eyes piercing through him, he turned toward them and waved. He stopped throwing the made-up aircrafts in the air and strutted across the room feeling like a fine-looking young man, which he was, unfortunately. "Heey…" he greeted Toni with a smile from ear to ear, looking like he hadn't seen her for the longest time. "Good morning," he said, after he gave her a quick kiss.

"What's going on?" Remus asked Peter, the moment he caught up with them.

"You know what they say. When the cat is away, the mouse will play."

"So playing meant throwing these… _things_ in the air," Toni stated, pointing at what Sirius was holding.

Instead of getting the point, Sirius smiled quite proudly and held up what he had in his hand. "Actually this is a jumbo jet!" Everyone around him turned at each other and rolled their eyes. But he seemed to not care at all.

"I give up," Toni muttered, shaking her head. So, she tried to change the subject, instead. Maybe he'd be able to make sense in other things. "McGonagall's late. It's weird isn't—?"

"It's out of this world, as a matter of fact. But the woman's over fifty years old. It's about time she caught a flu or something."

No success over there, either. But Kiara and Vince let out soft chuckles, which they tried to mask in a couple of grunts when Toni glared menacingly.

"You're crazy, Black," Remus told him before he finally settled in his seat, knowing that this conversation wasn't going anywhere.

* * * * *

"Lily… wake up…"

After eating her breakfast, Lily thought she could use more rest and decided to go back to sleep. Unfortunately, James was starting to feel a tad lonely staring at the ceiling and the walls of the infirmary and thought it best to wake Lily up from her nap. He sat beside her on the bed and started whispering in her ear. "Yoohoo… are you awake yet?" But Lily stirred in her bed and turned away from him.

James sat up straight and rolled his eyes. "Oh, you've been sleeping all morning. There's only one animal I know that eats and then sleeps afterwards…"

"James, if you say 'pig' I'm going to smash your head with a pair of Bludger bats," he heard her muffling in her pillows.

"Well then, wake up…!" he grumbled in fake exasperation. He reached for Lily and then started shaking her. "Wake up. Wake up. Wake up."

"Oh, stop shaking me. I'm just going to get dizzy and then I'd be wanting more sleep," Lily replied sleepily, still her face buried in her pillow.

So, James stopped shaking her and looked at her for a while – a mind brewing an idea so early in the morning… "Fine." He moved closer and lay beside her. Then, he gladly put his arm around her and—

Well, he was going to lean over and kiss her on the cheek but Lily thought it wasn't really appropriate to be all cozy in the Hospital Wing. She turned around and looked at him, with his arm still around her waist. "James, what are you doing?" she said, her face just a few inches away from his.

James pretended to think for a moment, smiled and then replied, "Getting comfortable?"

Just then, they both heard someone clearing her throat. "Ahem." They soon found Madame Prenny standing by the foot of the bed. For a second they just looked at each other with James looking like, 'go on, what is it?' but then, the school nurse cleared her throat again and nodded her head pertaining to James' arm – and whole self, actually, in Lily's bed.

James rolled his eyes and snorted. "Oh c'mon," he said, pulling back his arm where it belonged and then sitting up straight. "We're just talking."

"That's right," Lily joined in. "Well, I was sleeping and he was the one doing all the talking, anyhow."

Madame Prenny drew a deep breath – perhaps patience – before starting to speak. "Well, I have good news for you both. You're going to be released."

"Now?" Came a question from James – which was a bit odd for someone who, a few days ago, was almost pleading on his knees just to be released from the Hospital Wing in spite of the insanely high fever he had. Of course, now, he had a reason to stay.

"You suddenly feel like staying?" Madame Prenny replied with another question, while eyeing James and Lily. She seemed to know what was going on in that boy's head.

"Uh—" a moment of speechlessness from the Potter. "No," he finally said, getting out of bed. "No."

"I heard you the first time, Mr. Potter," the school nurse crossed her arms.

"I know," James said pointedly, as he walked toward the nurse. "But, see, we're already late for class."

"Oh, Transfiguration," Lily suddenly groaned from her bed. "We're already late for McGonagall's class."

"I'm well aware of that Ms. Evans. If it were up to me, I wouldn't release you till tomorrow. But Headmaster Dumbledore insisted that you attend Professor McGonagall's class as soon as possible."

"Why?" chorused James and Lily.

Instead of giving a reason, Madame Prenny just waved them off and answered, "It's not in my place to say." She walked to her desk and pulled a couple of parchment to write on.

James followed her. "Is something wrong?" he asked, curiosity getting the best of him.

"Oh… don't ask me. I'm just the school nurse. Here," she said, handing him the parchment. James looked and saw that she wrote them a couple of notes to excuse them from being late in class.

"Hey, nice," James muttered after reading the note. "Do you think I could keep this for _emergency_ purposes?"

Madame Prenny rolled her eyes and shooed him off. "Go on. Get out of here. You need to change into your informs and attend class," she said instead and then added, looking at James, "And no. You can't keep that." Before James could say even more, the school nurse blurted out, as if reading his mind, "And no. You cannot make copies of those, either. Now, go on. Shoo."

James bobbed his head back and pouted exaggeratingly trying to look like he was stunned and hurt by her tone. "Well thank you for being such a lovely hostess. I suddenly felt your overwhelming hospitability, just then."

Now, Madame Prenny was genuinely feeling rather annoyed – dealing with James so early this morning. "James Potter, I wonder how Lily Evans could stand you."

James snorted like 'isn't it obvious?' and then flashed a winning smile. "She loves me!"

"James," Lily's voice resonated in the air. He turned around and looked at her standing by the door. "Quit aggravating the school nurse and let's go."

"Alright," he replied. Then he spun back around to the school nurse once more. "I'll see you around… We will _shoo_ now."

* * * * *

"Sirius, what are you still doing?"

Sirius stopped what he was doing – apparently still making those he called _jumbo_ jets out of parchment, while the whole class was waiting for Professor McGonagall to arrive. The tone of Toni's voice didn't exactly sound like she was having fun. He stirred in his seat and looked at her, sitting next to him. "F-folding—paper—organizing?" he replied instead, with a hesitant smile, after Toni scowled at him. "I'm bored!" he groaned. "I didn't realize not having McGonagall in the classroom could make me bored like this."

"Oh that's a surprise," Toni suddenly blurted out. She crossed her arms and looked at him menacingly. "You better rephrase that statement very soon."

For a while, Sirius stared at her wondering what was wrong. And then he realized…

"Oh! No no no no no! Toni, I didn't mean it that way. You know I like spending time with you," he started a hundred miles per second apology. "I just meant you know— I'm not in trouble am I?" Toni just looked at him and then rolled her eyes. He bit his lip. Uh-oh. "Want a jumbo jet?"

Couldn't get much worse than that.

"Want a haircut?" Toni mocked. Then she started gawking at his hair, quite intently. "Let's see… what look suits you?"

"Toni," Sirius spoke, absolutely worried that she was serious in chopping those lovely locks he never even let anyone else lay a hand on. "You're not – you're not serious, are you? You're not planning to sneak up into the boys' dormitories, you know, late at night, then sneak into my bed—"

"For… get it!" Toni exclaimed, wide-eyed. "Don't be ridiculous."

"Just asking…"

"Besides, as much as it's appropriate to see your face once in a while, I'm not going to be the one to hold you back from your relationship with your _crowning glory_," she mocked him. "But come to think of it, that's not really a bad idea."

"Sneaking into my bed?"

"No… Cutting your hair."

"No it's not. You know why? Because I still look absolutely fabulous," Sirius uttered so confidently that he probably believed it himself.

Toni was supposed to say something back but decided to just let that comment pass when the students who were loitering out in the halls came running into the classroom, yelling, "McGonagall's coming!" And everyone started to struggle for his seat.

In a short second, Professor McGonagall entered the classroom commandingly as the last students were still on their way to their places. "Oh, it's not like I couldn't hear your voices from down the hall," she said, as she walked toward the front of the class. She placed the pile of parchment papers that she was carrying with her on the desk. And after a deep breath, she turned around and looked at the class before starting to speak. "Good morning. I'm sorry for my delay—"

"That's all right Ms. McG. You're still my favorite professor," came a voice from a very familiar person. Sirius smiled widely as the other students giggled.

McGonagall looked at him looking like she was ready to tell him off. However, having Sirius Black—_the_ Sirius Black—as a student for the seventh consecutive year, one would get used to his antics. Fortunately, his best friend, James Potter, wasn't there to double the headache. "Well, thank you, Mr. Black. Perhaps you could settle down and listen to me now," she replied, just waving him off, instead.

"Sure Professor McG."

Professor McGonagall waited for the sniggering to die down before she began again. "Now that things have livened up, we will start with your exam results." Groans filled the classroom as she gathered up the parchment papers resting on her desk. "Not to worry. At least for this test. I'd like to say I'm quite impressed with your results." She started passing around the tests. "I even suspect that some of you have mastered the art of human transformations into animals. Mr. Black," she handed him his exam, "you seem to have taken this to the heart. Needless to say, this is your best work yet," she said to Sirius whose smile was widening by the second.

"I told you you're my favorite," Sirius replied with salute.

"And so are you, Mr. Lupin. Mr. Pettigrew."

"Hey, Remus," Peter whispered, nudging his friend in the rib.

Remus was occupied eyeing the distancing figure of the professor. Somehow she seemed strange – a bit different – to him. There was something that she was harboring and he could sense it – like any animal, or a wolf for that matter, could sense fear. He just realized that he was probably staring when Peter elbowed him. He turned to his friend and looked at him with a quizzical face.

Peter smiled when Remus looked at him like he bothered him from something so important. "I think she's a little too old for you, mate."

Alright, he was probably staring. Remus rolled his eyes and looked pathetically at his friend. _After Lily, how could you possibly stomach the thought of me and…_ "Go to hell…" he groaned, before he pretended to look at his exam results. He only looked up again when McGonagall started the lesson.

However, just in the middle of the introduction to a new lecture, the professor stopped in mid-sentence – apparently interrupted, as she gazed with anticipation at the door. The perplexed students turned around to see what was she looking at and found James and Lily standing at the door.

There was silence. It would've been a bit deadly if Sirius hadn't been so eager to spoil the mood. "Awww… the couple has arrived! Ouch." Toni prodded him to stop, evidently.

"Well, are you just going to stand there?" McGonagall said, ignoring Sirius – or trying to ignore, whatever it was, she was already a highly skilled professional when it came to it.

And as if he just came out of a trance, James shook his head 'no' and pulled Lily alongside him toward the front of the class. "The school nurse decided to let us out of the infirmary at the last minute," he said, as he handed the parchment papers that the nurse gave him.

No he decided not to make copies.

McGonagall didn't take long to read what was written in the paper. She already knew that Dumbledore requested Madame Prenny to release them and then ask them to attend her class so this wasn't really a surprise. Besides, she knew that being Head Boy and Head Girl – they had to be there. "Take your seats," she muttered and put the notes in her pocket after she folded them.

* * * * *

"Will the Gryffindors please stay? For a while." McGonagall called out after class. The students from Gryffindor groaned in unison after her announcement, as they were all normally expecting that this labyrinth of Transfiguration would end now since class time was over. But, no… they had to stay. Even for a while.

The Slytherins were all sniggering at the groaning Gryffindors when McGonagall, apparently not finished with her statement, added, "And the Slytherins, please go to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Your House Head will be waiting for you."

Haha.

After the Slytherins left the room, other seventh year Gryffindors came arriving by the minute. It was like a gathering. And Peter was starting to get a wee bit curious and agitated. He turned to Remus as if trying to ask a question that he couldn't find the words for.

"Something's up. I can feel it," Remus spoke in a low voice like he was giving caution or a forewarning. He watched as the students came in one by one. And then at McGonagall. He looked at her face as if trying to see if she was showing signs of anxiety. Then he noticed that she was rubbing her hands together like they were cold – or maybe this was how she waited. He didn't really watch her every start of the class to see what she was doing.

Peter apparently took Remus very seriously when it came to these kinds of things. He started becoming anxious himself. Something about Remus and his 'somethings' were not exactly a reason for joy especially when Remus was looking like he was ready to transform into a raging monster while waiting for the enemy to appear before him. "Are—? You're— you're not trying to scare me, are you?" he said, practically squeaking, short of hiding in a corner and turning into a rat for the rest of his life.

Remus knew that his friend was expecting for him to take back what he just said but, "Something is definitely going on."

* * * * *

Sure, it was Remus who felt that something was brewing inside the walls of Hogwarts – or maybe outside? But who actually knew? However, when the students settled in their seats, now he wasn't the only one who suspected there was a big announcement to be made. How big, how significant, or how it would affect each and every one of them, that was what they were all buzzing about. But apparently, all seventh years were called to join with their housemates and the respective Head of their Houses.

McGonagall tapped her wand on the desk to call everyone's attention and without any ado, began to speak. "I'm not going to beat around the bush. You're probably wondering why you are all here." She paused shortly before continuing. "Cutting to the chase, a tighter school security is going to be implemented."

More buzzing echoed throughout the classroom after this statement. Tighter school security? Wasn't Hogwarts secured enough? With Dumbledore and all the professors, for what more did these securities were needed? "Settle down. Settle down."

"These securities are more of being careful. And as the eldest in your House, you all will be watching over the lower-year students. Now, the responsibility isn't forced on you. The faculty simply cannot do this alone. We need your cooperation."

James' hand shot up in the air. And even without the teacher giving him the permission to talk, he spoke. "What exactly is happening?"

McGonagall didn't answer right away. She paused and looked at him, but her expression seemed like she was thinking of a way to deviate from the question. "Times are changing, Mr. Potter." Her voice was heavy with the caution that Remus was sensing since the beginning of class. "You will be informed of the matter that concerns you. And as of this moment, the information I have given and going to give is what… concerns you."

Then, she took out a roll of parchment and began reading a new set of rules and regulations. "Students are not allowed out in the school grounds after dark, and no student shall be allowed to stay out of his House after ten o'clock – taking into consideration each year level's curfew. There will be no exceptions. Even Quidditch practices are to be done in daytime and games are likely to be suspended in times of heavy rain… These new regulations are to be announced again during the school dinner this evening."

* * * * *

"Games cancelled in times of rain? Wha—?" James muttered again. He was saying the same thing all day and it was driving everyone with him mad. Especially Lily. Well, she was going out with this boy and she was probably stuck with him all day, exclaiming in different sets of tones: _Games cancelled in times of rain?! Games cancelled in times of rain…? Games cancelled in times of rain…_ All it needed was a chorus reply of 'Why?!!!' and everything would have been complete. Fortunately, some of Lily's classes were not with James. Like right now – James and his friends were already walking to the Great Hall for dinner without Lily… nor Toni, because they didn't have class together.

"Heavy rain. It's _heavy rain_," Remus said. "Because it's dark." He paused when James looked at him with a puzzled face. "During heavy rain," he explained further.

Peter, who was listening intently, probably because of fear – or paranoia to be exact – pulled his robe closer to him and said, "Well, that can't be good, can it? It just means they don't want us out in the dark. What is there exactly in the dark suddenly these days?"

"Yes! Why would you cancel a game in times of rain? Nobody cancels a game of Quidditch in times of anything!" James blurted out. Obviously, Quidditch had a special place in his heart and it hurt to know that the system was altering Quidditch policies. He was, say, heartbroken.

Peter shook at the said of that. Maybe… maybe something was wrong. "Unless there's evil! Evil most likely lurking in the dark." He started rambling on like a scared little rat that it would have been so funny if he didn't actually believe what he was saying.

"That's right," Sirius agreed without thinking. Obviously, he wasn't listening to his friend just then. But then again, there were moments that he realized what he was doing just in the knick of time. After opening his mouth thoughtlessly, light shed some on him. He turned to Peter and realized the somewhat ridiculous idea his friend just offered. "What?"

But Peter just squeaked, "Do you think we're going to die?"

There, his three friends all stopped in their tracks and looked at him like he was starting to go insane. He was – quite apparently to their knowledge.

Sirius was the first to break the pause. He was the one who started laughing before his friends joined him. "You look like you're going to go in your pants, Wormtail!"

* * * * *

Of course, the foursome took their seats at the front end of the Gryffindor table. There was something about this side of the Great Hall – teachers do not usually look at the front of the class, they look at the people at the back to see if they aren't doing any mischief. But then, James and Sirius would attract attention wherever they tried to place themselves. It was in their nature – making trouble.

This time around, they saved four more seats. One was for Toni, the pretty sporty brunette who was playing for the Gryffindor Quidditch team as a Chaser and at the same time going out with Sirius. How he actually made that happen in spite of his altogether carefree nature, only history would know. He was a good-looking boy, for one. And the romantic of the four – that was a great part of the reason.

The other one was for, who else but Lily Evans – red head, pretty, petite and intelligent. Now, another mystery how James was able to get this girl… it was another story altogether completed with saucer-sized cookies, glowing stars in the Head Prefects Room, the Big Dipper, and just recently, the kiss in the rain that ended with both of them in the Hospital Wing.

The other two were for Kiara and Vince – the girl who liked attention and the boy who tried to keep out of them. Another contradiction that fate brought together. They hung out with Lily and Toni before the two girls ended up with the Marauders. And these two would be another long story.

After a minute, Lily arrived for dinner. The moment she sat beside James, she automatically received mischievous stares from Sirius. While Remus and Peter were just showing plain curiosity.

"You're not exactly making me comfortable, you know?" Lily muttered at Sirius who was now batting his eyes at her.

"Silly Lily," Sirius teased. "You know we just _adore_ you…" he said as he reached out for Lily's hand. He was planning to give it a kiss like a gentleman would a lady, but Lily immediately pulled back her arm.

"Shut up."

Just another moment passed and Toni came marching to their table looking like she was going to war. She plopped down beside Sirius without even acknowledging him and looked at James. "Alright. We have to start scheduling the pitch for our practices. Slytherins have been filling up all possible slots," she said without as much as taking a breath. "Aargh…! I am going to shave the hair out of that blond git!"

"Whoa!" Sirius reacted after the words 'shave' and 'hair' came out of Toni's mouth. "Easy there," he said, running his hand behind Toni's back to calm her down. "Now, we don't want to start doing anything impulsive."

"What if it _is_ the sign of the times?" Out of nowhere, Peter began rambling again. Not again. "Like one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse."

Everyone looked at him; curious on what in the world he was talking about. Then, strangely enough, Sirius was the first one to get it. "Seriously, what have you been eating lately?"

"Or maybe what's eating him," Remus joined in.

But Peter ignored them. "It's not actually very comforting to be told that potential danger is out there waiting… to just… pounce on you," he said complete with gestures of 'waiting' and 'pouncing'.

Toni looked at them with a perplexed face. She was talking about the dungeon people! Not this! "Are we still talking about the Slytherins?"

"No. We're talking about Peter's bloody end of the world," Sirius replied, making 'ooh, I'm so scared' gestures.

Peter narrowed his eyes at him. "Oh, sure. Make fun of me. Make fun of the little guy who doesn't want to die."

"You're not going to die, Peter," Remus muttered, not really wanting to hear any more of this and at the same time, regretting that he even said anything about 'something.' "I don't think the other world's ready for you."

At the said of that, Sirius grabbed his chest as if it was hit by a bullet and exclaimed, "Ouch! Straight to the heart. The big. Bad. Growling—" he stopped in mid sentence when he saw Remus glaring at him. The big and the bad were okay but he was apparently forgetting about where he was going with his drama when he started referring to him as growling. Not the best place to broadcast that he growled under the full moon – werewolves, they weren't very keen on spreading around their nature when they were in human form. "—Remus strikes again," Sirius said instead, in the most lamest 'Ok, I'll shut up, now' tone.

Normally, Peter would give it a rest after a series of people were apparently ignoring his concerns. But that night… "What have you told me earlier in McGonagall's classroom?" he said, turning to Remus. Obviously, he wasn't planning on dropping it. Technically, nobody was telling him to, anyway. He made a brooding face that made him look like a pouting five-year old. He was actually trying to appear like Remus but the brooding wasn't clearly meant for him. "Something's definitely going on," he mimicked his friend.

Now, in spite of having to look like a wrinkled rat than an ominous yet gentle Remus, the people around him actually got it. Everyone looked at Remus.

"What do you mean?" Lily asked.

Remus knew that he was trapped. He better do some explaining or else… He sighed audibly. This was the reason why you don't say anything to Peter – especially those that would make him more than paranoid. "I just sensed something odd about her behavior. She seemed… anxious," he said with a shrug. Then he turned to Peter and talked to his face. "But that doesn't mean that you're going to die in the near future."

"You mean frightened? Scared out of her wits. We're going to die…!"

"Oy!" Sirius exclaimed, throwing a piece of bread at Peter. It wasn't actually just 'a piece' because it was big enough to probably knock him back into sanity. "Get yourself a grip, mate." Everyone wanted to laugh but decided to unsuccessfully stifle them seeming that Peter looked rather pathetic when he almost fell off his seat – not just because of the bread, of course. But he wasn't really expecting to be hit a big chunk of food.

"Hey, that hurt," Peter complained. "And you're wasting food," he said, now eating the bread.

"You know, maybe it's even nothing," Remus shrugged, after everyone stopped from trying to keep their sniggering to themselves. "I sense this kind of emotion a lot."

* * * * *

When the school administration said that they were imposing a curfew for the students, well, they actually meant immediately – like, right away.

Remus just came into the castle after a stroll out the school grounds. He was decided on going back to the Gryffindor Tower when he glanced upon a figure hurriedly passing by in the dark. Actually, it looked more to him like sneaking, rather than passing. He thought to look into it and followed the shadow that was creeping up the stairs. It was dark so he couldn't clearly see but he was sure that it was a female student sneaking up the Astronomy Tower.

Somehow, the girl seemed to have felt that someone was following her. So she hurriedly went into the Astronomy classroom and almost was running right past through it straight to the door out onto the rooftop. She was about to open the door when Remus appeared right before her face when she turned around to see if she had lost him.

Apparently she did not.

"Ah!"

"Whoa!"

"You scared me," the girl finally said after catching her breath. But she still seemed panting as she clutched her chest.

"I'm – I'm sorry."

"Were you following me?" the girl demanded.

"Uh—" Uh, well yes apparently. "It's just… it's almost ten in the evening. Shouldn't you be back in your tower?"

The girl chuckled. "Shouldn't you, too?"

Good point.

"I know that." Remus followed her out into the rooftop. Clearly, she wouldn't be listening to him anytime soon. He looked at the girl but couldn't quite recognize her. Besides, although the sky was full of stars that night, it wasn't enough light to see her completely. "But still, you're not—" he stopped when the girl turned and looked at him. "—_We're_ not allowed here… at this time."

"I know that," the girl teased. She walked to the stone balustrade of the rooftop and leaned over on her elbows. "We're suddenly not allowed anywhere at this time. So, you're not supposed to be here, either," she said, as she gazed at the sky. When she didn't hear a reply, she turned around and looked at him. She smiled when she saw Remus flashing an almost desperate face. Probably desperate to get her inside the castle. "You're not going to tell on me, are you?" Her tone wasn't of caution. There was actually a hint mischief in that voice – like she was delighted by his reactions every time she refused to listen to him.

Remus put his hands in his pocket. This girl was beginning to be a challenge. "I'll let this one pass. Uh – only one," he said pointedly.

But instead of a yes, the girl replied quite not the opposite, but not the answer Remus sought for, "Are you seriously thinking that I'll let you talk to me like I'm a child?" she snorted, then turned her back on him and went back leaning on the balustrade.

"You mean, you're not even curious why suddenly school grounds are off limits after dark and students are restricted outside their Houses at this time…?" Remus said, as he walked toward the girl he obviously had forgotten to ask the name of.

The girl chuckled. But if she were a sparkle just a moment ago, it seemed that something about her started to fade just then. She stood straight and pulled her robes closer to her, almost like she was trying to enfold her body with herself. "Everybody's a little curious. But hardly anyone takes it seriously," she muttered, not meeting Remus' eyes. The she said, "I'm not going to do anything against the rules, you know," changing the subject.

"You already have," Remus shrugged, "just broken the curfew."

"And so have you," the girl said, but it seemed like she refused to look at him. She just kept staring at the sky.

"What are you looking for?" Curiosity got the better of Remus.

"I just – I just like looking at the heavens at night. You can call me a freak if you like, I wouldn't care."

"I'm not going to call you a freak," Remus gently, striding closer to her.

The girl suddenly distanced herself at the same time that Remus tried to get nearer. "I guess it's sill cloudy tonight," she said. "I'm going back inside," she said as she hurriedly walked toward the door. She left without even saying as much as a good night or a see you around.

Remus was left confused. He was looking up at the sky, too. It was so clear that one could count all the stars if he dared. There wasn't a speck of cloud in the sky.

__

~*~*~*~

for strangers in the night... i'd run away... if something isn't right... i'd run away... but if you would choose to stay... what can i say... but i'd run away... -- meja, "i'd run away"

I know there wasn't much of James and Lily but there was Peter's paranoia and Remus' mysterious girl. Hmmm…

Now, about the title… I don't think it's the appropriate time to tell you about it. Just you wait. Maybe you'll figure it out anyway.

So… review, review, review. That's what I ask.


	3. Two Boys And A Girl

__

DOESN'T HE KNOW YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND?!

Oh my good Merlin… I'm back! I told you I was depressed. Actually, still am. I dunno why… sometimes the meaninglessness of it all just hits me hard. Today, as a matter of fact, I broke down and splashed every damnation on a piece of paper… it's up in fictionpress right now, actually. Well, it just so happens that I have a real-life's dementor living in my house. You know, the one that sucks out your soul until you're left with nothing but thoughts that you're never gonna be good enough. (too thin, too fat, too short, too tall, hair too frizzy, teeth too crooked, skin very unsightly – you know, when sometimes, you think to yourself, "Oh good Lord, you're ugly! How dare_ you show your face in the light!") That's why, by God! I really need to move out. Just need to find the proper job to pay for that kind of option. Where? Where? Where? Can I do anything that has nothing (absolutely nothing!) to do with accounting? Because I'm sick and tired of being connected to the Association of Professional Killers-Through-Boredom. It also kills its members you know – with the massive biological warhead that is boredom of course. And my relatives just absolutely adore announcing the unexciting fact that I'm a CPA. Goodness, I bet half of the people they told that to do not really know what a CPA is. And I don't really care. Just don't ask me about it because I am definitely going to break. "I'm an effing accountant! Do you actually believe that there's an interesting bone in my body?!"_

Now, enough of that and on to the much long delayed Chapter Two of my story. See, it's still here. I'm still alive. Finally got my act together and wrote instead of worked. Hahaha!!! I'm bonkers.

But of course, I'd like to give a thank-you to the people who kept on reading (and reviewing of course). Hi there… hope you haven't lost your patience…

hproksmyworld

Aspiring Shieldmaiden

Lily Natalia Evans

jaizar black

blue

mutsumi -- alright, I've updated… now you have to post all those one-shots you've been writing… hahaha…

Sydelle (2x) -- no, I haven't given up… just hibernated for a while… hehe…

x- marTiNi aDdiCt –x

aN iLligitimaTe LovE cHiLd

BlackDog84

So, since Book 6 has been released and obviously I've started Oblivious before Book 5 and then started Curtain Calls right where Oblivious finished, there would be inconsistencies with the present canon. But, anyway, if you're a sport about it… you'll realize it's fanfiction, right? And by the way, JK Rowling – only the richest author in the magical land! – she's the one who owns Harry Potter. Just borrowing some characters for the story.

when you can't quite match your clothes... when you laugh at your own jokes... that's when i love you... i love you more than you know... -- aslyn, "that's when i love you"

~*~*~*~

**CHAPTER TWO: Two Boys and a Girl**

Trunks short of turning over like they were having a certain kind of riot on their own woke up Sirius so early in the day. Well, at least to him, a quarter to eight still belonged to the ungodly hours when he wasn't supposed to be disturbed. He tried to ignore the uprising of wooden chests until a piece of a rather questionable undergarment landed right on top of his face – his precious _precious_ face…

James stopped rummaging the entire contents of his trunk when he noticed a shadow hovering him. He turned around to see his very disgruntled best friend carrying a pile of his clothes – with the dirty piece of laundry that landed on his nose a few seconds ago.

James stood and looked at Sirius and with an innocent expression on his face said, "What?"

Sirius dropped the clothes at James' feet. "'What'?" he said, scratching his head. "What are you doing making a riot so early in the morning?" he asked, looking around and seeing the dormitory's floor covered with clothes. Now that wasn't really James' fault; that was very normal – only this time, there were more of them on the floor since James started his trunk-raid that morning. "Remus'll have a fit with the mess you made."

"Since when did anyone around here care about order?" James replied as he continued his undying search for something Sirius still couldn't figure out. "And it's not early in the morning. As you may have noticed, everyone in Hogwarts has been up and about for the last half an hour."

Sirius scanned the room and agreed that apparently, they were the only two people left in it. Remus and Peter had already gone down to the Great Hall for breakfast or somewhere… the point was they had already been 'up and about.'

"Aha!" James exclaimed and then walked past Sirius. Apparently, he had found what he was looking for.

"A pair of trousers?" Sirius dared to ask when James picked them up from the floor beside his bed.

"They're my favorite trousers."

"Your 'favorite' trousers?" a disbelieving Sirius said. Since when did James have a favorite pair of pants that looked like what the other four hundred boys in school were wearing every day? Then, he noticed that James only had on his underwear; and looked around and saw an unmistakably nicely hanged school robe by James's bed. "And I suppose that's your favorite robe over there. Your favorite shirt –" he teased, pointing at the very white undershirt that his friend had on "– and your favorite boxers, too!"

A glare started from James' eyes directly towards Sirius. He opened his mouth to defend himself but changed his mind and just waved Sirius off then put on his pants.

Just then, a smile formed mischievously on Sirius' face. "Oh, I get it! You're trying to be all groomed and handsome for your girlfriend!" He walked closer and reached for James' cheeks saying, "But you're already so cute!"

James slapped away Sirius' hands. "Ha. Ha. Very funny," he said, smirking. "Just go back to bed."

Considering the situation, Sirius looked at James hard until he managed to give him a very uncomfortable stare. "There's no going back to sleep for anyone who has seen this vision…" he said and then strutted towards the bathroom while James – who ignored him – was yet looking for something else again.

"Hey," Sirius called from the bathroom. "Are these your favorite socks?" he said, holding them up.

"Yeah," James replied, getting up from under one of the beds. He was halfway towards the bathroom when he noticed that Sirius was slowly closing the door. "Don't even think about it." He made a run for it but all that greeted him was the door slammed shut on his face. "Hey!" he called as he tried to turn the knob that was apparently very much locked. "Open up!"

No reply came from inside. James could hear Sirius turn on the shower to block away his voice… and worse, he started singing his heart out. "I… don't remember what day it was. I… didn't notice what time it was. All I know is that I fell – in – love – with – you. La la la la…"

James knocked harder on the door. He obviously needed those pair of socks. He tried reaching for his wand but as he looked at the bedside table where he left it, it was gone – Sirius must've nicked it while he was busy looking under the beds. "Oh you're such a pain in the arse!" He exclaimed in vain as Sirius sang louder in the shower.

"And if all my dreams come true…! I'LL BE SPENDING TIME WITH YOU! OH… I LOVE YOU MORE TODAY THAN YES-TER-DAY! But not as much as to…mo…rrow…"

* * * * *

Lily and Toni were eating their breakfast at the Gryffindor table quietly – of course, since James and Sirius weren't there yet because Sirius was still singing in the shower while James was cursing him to choke on soap. Peter, on the other hand, was sitting next to Cherie Walker at the Ravenclaw table. While Remus was still nowhere to be seen. And Vince was waiting for Kiara when they left the common room.

It was another normal breakfast until…

"That Arithmancy exam yesterday was excruciatingly difficult, don't you think?" A boy, who looked like he materialized straight from a magazine, sat beside Toni and smiled.

At her surprise, Toni turned to him and muttered, "Uh…" while flashing an utterly confused face. She turned to Lily, who was looking puzzled herself, and then turned back to the boy. "Who are you?" she said, sounding more like you-do-not-belong-here.

The boy feigned offense as he said, "Ouch. Seven years in Hogwarts and you still don't know me."

Toni ignored the boy's tone, placing pancakes into her mouth. "Well…" she began after about two minutes of chewing. Apparently, the boy was waiting for some sort of answer when she didn't really feel like having a conversation with someone potentially annoying this early in the morning. "That'll be true if I'm actually supposed to know you."

"You really have no idea…?" the boy said looking at her as if he was trying to read her mind. When Toni just shrugged and sipped her pumpkin juice, the boy sighed audibly as if frustrated.

Toni knitted her brows – clearly starting to lose patience at this boys' horrible act of trying to look cute. She turned again to Lily as if this time she would've remembered who he was but only got another shrug.

The pretty-boy spoke again. "Short brown hair…? Blue eyes…? Tall…?" Toni eyed him quizzically. But he managed to ignore the signs of utter I-don't-really-care looks from her and added, with a mischievous smile plastered across his face, "And I must say some good looking face and a nice built."

Lily almost choked – while, at the same time, lunging a bit forward to go after the food that almost escaped her mouth.

Toni apparently almost did too as she coughed something that was suddenly lodged in her throat. She wanted to laugh out loud at his face, but managed to stifle it by mouthing a rather big piece of the breakfast she was eating.

"Really?!" It was now Toni's turn to fake disbelief. She looked at the boy with wide eyes as if realizing some sort of amusing revelation. "Well, what do you know? At first I thought that you just described yourself – quite _conceitedly_, I must say. Your parents must've _drowned_ you in self-esteem when you were young. I _definitely_ didn't know that you could buy that."

But the guy only smiled as if really entertained with her. _Boy! You're self-belief must be made of steel,_ Toni thought for she expected the guy to be offended and get away from her as fast as he could. "Do you always talk that way?" the boy said instead, still smiling. "Sorry, I mean no offense, though."

Toni rolled her eyes muttering, "I don't care, really," and went back to her breakfast.

"Does she always talk like this?" the boy asked again, this time looking at Lily who was busy pretending she didn't exist.

"Uh, well—"

"What is it exactly that you want—?" Toni interrupted then her eyes strayed, for the first time, to his uniform and saw… yellow. _A Hufflepuff? What's a freakin' Hufflepuff doing bothering me?_ "Oh… yeah…" she said. This time she didn't have to pretend any emotion as a genuine realization dawned on her. "You're that perpetually annoying guy who sits at the back of Arithmancy! _Now_ I remember you."

The boy smiled again. Apparently, his parents hadn't taught him about taking a hint. "Actually it's Eric. But we can always go by with what the Professor thinks of me…"

* * * * *

In the library at the same hour was Remus borrowing the library's copy of the Daily Prophet. As he whiled away on the headlines, a grumbling from one hidden corner echoed softly in the air.

"Stupid bird. Geroff!"

He peered through the books in the shelves just in time when Lucius Malfoy shooed off the bird – or which seemed that could pass as a bird with its malevolent eyes and patchy feathers. It was so thin that Remus wondered if the wind just knocked it off course and accidentally flew to Hogwarts. It was obviously not an owl, which was what usually wizards and witches used in sending letters and packages. But then again, Malfoy wasn't exactly part of the norm – he was vile.

Remus watched as Malfoy opened the letter sent to him. It looked ordinary – written on parchment but reading from Malfoy's scrunched up nose, it seemed to have a nasty reek.

Malfoy quickly folded the parchment and kept the letter in his robe pocket. Remus actually thought that aside from being a totally despicable wizard, Malfoy suddenly sprouted seeing-eyes at the back of his head and saw him. But then, Narcissa came waltzing into his corner.

"Lucius, there you are," she said in sugary tone. It was surprising since Narcissa was just as unlikeable as Malfoy but apparently, they liked each other – it seemed that opposites don't always attract. "What are you doing here at this time? Aren't you hungry?" Then she grabbed Lucius by the hand and muttered, "C'mon, let's eat."

After a few minutes, Remus did the same and left the library, carrying some of the books he borrowed and the Daily Prophet with him.

Stupidly, Remus was busy reading the paper when he suddenly bumped into someone just as he got out the door. "Oh, I'm sorry," he automatically said, as both their things came sliding down the hall – well, actually worse for the other person as she was clearly unaware that her books and parchment just went flying from her hands and landed all across the floor.

"Sorry. I was in the way," the girl replied as she knelt down and started collecting her scattered stuffs.

One second later, both of them were on their knees gathering their things – Remus also helping her with her things since he was, as always, being a kindly gentleman. "I'm so sorry," he muttered again.

"No that's alright," the girl said.

"No, it's my fault, too. I wasn't looking," Remus replied. When he finished, he handed the books and parchment that he collected to the girl and said with a smile, "This must be yours."

The girl took the book from Remus and muttered a "Thanks" without even looking at him.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't really looking where—" Remus tried to continue his apology when suddenly, he noticed that the girl was a head shorter than him and probably got the wind knocked off her when he bumped into her as he himself was rather tall. "Are you okay?" he asked, his voice concerned as he tried to catch the girl's eyes.

"Yeah," an assuring reply came from the girl and for the first time, she looked up and recognized Remus – the Remus who was now looking down still trying to regain the balance of carrying his books. "Remus Lupin," she muttered.

"What?" Remus said, before he looked up again.

But the girl only shook her head and started concentrating her gaze at the piece of parchment in her hands. "Nothing. I'm – I'll be going now. Sorry again." She smiled and then walked off.

"That's alright," Remus waved to the back of the girl after a few seconds of stunned confusion. He didn't even really see her face.

Remus might have been a little slow that morning – or maybe a little deaf. Because he was too late when a very specific thought finally processed in his brain. He went on to proceed to the Great Hall when he found another notebook on the ground. He realized that it belonged to the girl… the girl…

The girl from the Astronomy Tower!

He slapped his forehead so hard; it ought to leave some kind of mark. He realized now where he had heard that voice… "Remus, you're such a mental idiot!" And at the back of his head, he kept saying to himself that it was dark and she wasn't really looking at him last night. But still… "Stupid."

He ran towards the direction where the girl was going, hoping to catch up on her. But when he turned the corner, she was gone.

Another smack on the forehead.

* * * * *

At last, Sirius finally stopped singing and finished taking a shower. Unfortunately, for James, he didn't choke on soap.

As both of them walked the corridor to the Great Hall, James scowled at Sirius for making him wait.

"All I'm saying is that you could've used your other socks lying around the dormitory," Sirius said with the smile that he had been flashing since he went out of the bathroom.

"I was supposed to be in the Great Hall twenty minutes ago if not for your all out concert in the shower," James scolded still a little tempered that Sirius locked him inside the bathroom – wandless – when he came in to retrieve his socks after Sirius came out. "Since when do you lock the door when you're taking a shower?"

Sirius laughed, remembering James' expression when he finally decided to let James out of the bathroom – after he himself was done getting dressed – and found James murderously glaring at him. "Since you're being all so cutesy prim and proper James Potter!" he exclaimed in a very amused tone. James had never exerted any real effort for a girl before. And that was utterly entertaining for him. "But then again," he continued, "you can't really tame that hair whatever you try to do, can you?"

Involuntarily, James brushed his hair back with his hand. But as Sirius just said, it just went back to its original mess. "Get off my hair," he muttered.

"It's not like Lily's gonna smell your feet," Sirius started, going back to the pair of clean socks that James badly wanted. "I know the distance from up here –" he gestured a hand leveling his nose "– is quite farther from your feet compared to here –" he gestured a hand again, this time leveling his estimation of where Lily's head would be "– but I don't think they're going to reek that much."

James smirked at Sirius and lagged a few steps behind. Then, just as Sirius was about to turn and enter the Great Hall, James suddenly jumped on Sirius' back attempting to make him plummet to the ground.

"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed. "No!" he yelled when James started to make a complete mess of his perfectly – through his point-of-view – groomed crowning glory. "Arrgh…!"

Sirius tried to get James off his back – literally – by plopping himself towards the ground – back first hoping that James would be squashed under him.

Unsurprisingly, the passing students only ignored them. It was just another riot between James and Sirius. They were completely insane and that was completely normal for them. And just as they were ignored, they also ignored back the people walking past them. Not until did they see Remus staring at them with an un-paint-able expression on his face that they realized they were probably looking rather silly at that time.

"Hey! G'morning Mooney!" Sirius said loudly from the floor. He stood up and brushed his robe while smiling foolishly at Remus. Then, he let out a choking sound when James put his arm around his neck from behind.

"Don't you think it's quite late in the year to be starting a new morning routine? School ends in a couple of months," Remus said, not really stopping by to join his friends' insanity – as Sirius struggled free and then did the same strangling at James' neck. He scanned the Great Hall as if he would see the girl he met at the library – last night, actually, but he was being stupid at both times so… But what he spotted was Lily and Toni at the Gryffindor table… with a boy.

"Hey," he called Sirius' attention, "who's the guy with Toni?"

What?!

Sirius completely let go of James and without looking anywhere else, followed Remus' line of vision.

"Ou-ouch! You moron, get off me!" James said, when Sirius – accidentally? – stepped on him.

"I have no idea," Sirius muttered, utterly ignoring James. Without delaying any second, he led the way towards the table, not taking his eyes off the guy who was talking animatedly _to_ Toni while Toni had her head on her hand seemingly bored out of her wits.

"Please?" The first sounds of their conversation were slowly making its way to Sirius' ears as he heard the boy speak.

"I'm not sure… I have to think about it," Toni replied with a tone that said now-will-you-please-get-out-of-my-face.

"Please? I'm begging you," Eric said with hands clasped. "I'll do whatever you want. As long as you please do it."

_What 'it'?_ Sirius thought. He looked at Lily who was sitting across the table from Toni and she seemed to be staying out of the conversation – only glancing once in a while at the two.

"I said I'll think about it. Now please go before I lose my extra patience on you."

Sirius smiled. _Ah… that's my girl!_

"Can't you think about it now?" Eric insisted, pouting his lips and flashing his puppy dog eyes. To add to that, he was virtually an inch away from kneeling on one knee.

_Oh, cruel world! Who made this guy and why?!_ Sirius thought, his eyes at the ceiling.

Lily rolled her eyes and spotted James walking towards them. At last some annoying guys who were welcome. She smiled and waved at him and he smiled back.

On the other hand, when Sirius reached the table, he cleared his throat for some much needed attention and sat at the other side of Toni, eyeing Eric. While James sat beside Lily and Remus sat beside James – right across the new guy.

"I'll – have – to – think – about – it," Toni said, trying to get her exasperation across. "Or better yet, why don't you go ask somebody else?"

Eric smiled. (Again.) He looked at Toni and then said, "Well, you're easy on the eyes, what can I say?"

What?! "Hi!" Sirius exclaimed, getting everybody's attention while inside he was short of bursting into flames if he was not informed of what was going on. He put an arm around Toni's shoulders and smiled wider than ever.

"Hey…" Toni greeted back, turning to Sirius for the first time.

Sirius gave Toni a quick kiss – on the lips – and started, "So what's going on? Is there, uh, an interhouse party happening?"

"Well—"

"Alright," Eric interrupted Toni, "just… think about it. I'll see you around," he waved and then walked off towards the Hufflepuff table. Finally, the Gryffindors were rid of him.

"Who was that?" Remus started the second Eric was out of earshot.

"What'd he want?" James added without waiting for any answer.

"Doesn't he know you have a boyfriend?!" Sirius suddenly blurted out what he was trying to hinder inside him. Even he was surprised with what he had just done. Apparently, everyone around him was, too, as he looked back at them staring at him in amusement. Was Sirius Black—?

"Jealous?" Toni snorted right after a few seconds.

Everyone in the group looked at Sirius curiously. James snorted and chuckled as Sirius looked directly at Toni – quite lost for words.

Sirius opened his mouth to speak but ended up letting out an audible sigh and saying – in the most desperate attempt to sound cool, "No!"

"Yeah?"

"Yes! I mean no. I mean – you know what I mean."

"I don't really know…"

"You know, that's not the point, really," Sirius said, straightening in his seat. He got hold of Toni by the shoulders and turned her to face directly at him. "I know I just woke up ten minutes ago… but my brain is in definite… _perfect!_ condition that _that_ guy was flirting with you," he said with a matter-of-fact tone clear in his voice.

"No. It was twenty minutes ago," James interrupted. That wasn't really necessary but he felt like breaking into the conversation just when Toni was about to say something. "I should've been here at that time if only he didn't lock the stupid bathroom door."

A confused Lily suddenly turned to James. "Why are we suddenly talking about bathroom doors?"

"Because he needed it unlocked while I was taking a shower," Sirius answered using a girly tone. "Why, James? Why?"

James smirked at him. "Don't be gross."

"I was being violated I tell you," Sirius told Lily as he pointed at James accusingly.

"Oh bugger off!" James exclaimed with a disgusted tone apparent in his voice. Sirius was _seriously_ leading with insanity that day. So, in order to shut his friend up, James decided to tell the… embarrassing… truth. "I – I couldn't get my socks. There, you happy?" he demanded, glaring at Sirius.

But Sirius was obviously on a roll that morning. He would milk this shameful fact as much as he could. "Not just any socks… his fav—" Not another word came out of his mouth as James' wand quickly pointed at him.

James put the Silencing Charm on his best friend. "They're the only clean pair I have this morning," he said defensively, the very second Sirius stopped making sound. "And why are we talking about socks?"

"You were the ones who started talking about bathroom doors…" Lily replied with a chuckle, as she glanced at Sirius struggling with his wand in order to make the countercurse.

"That wasn't very nice," Sirius declared, looking at James dejectedly, as soon as he regained the ability to make sounds – sounds that could tell horrible, embarrassing truths… "Truth be told," he began again, pointing his wand in defense at James who looked so much like wanting to do more than a Silencing Charm on him, "we want to thank you, Lily Evans – for making him look respectable for once in his life."

Lily chuckled at the said of that. Then, she forcibly bit her lips in order to stifle her laugh when James looked at him like a lost puppy. "Oh… James…" she teased, rubbing James' back consolingly with her hand.

"Now other guys wouldn't dare flirt with you," Sirius muttered.

"He was _not_ flirting with me!" Toni exclaimed in exasperation. She looked at everyone around her at the table and looking in their eyes, said in great determination, "For your information, Eric was only asking for me to help him in Arithmancy."

"Oh, 'Eric'," Sirius said mockingly. "What kind of a name is Eric? Err… ric?" he said mimicking stupidity. "Anyway, that Eric guy was flirting with you so you'd tutor him in Arithmancy."

"He was not – ugh! – don't you think I'd know it if someone's flirting with me?"

"Oh!" Sirius exclaimed, looking at James. "Don't I think she knows if someone's flirting with her?"

"What?!"

"Well…" James started cautiously. Now, for boys, making fun of a girl sometimes was enjoyable especially when they're cute… but… Toni was another thing to mess with – she was beautiful… but she could kick a guy's behind out into the hallways if she wanted to. "Remember when Sirius was trying to get your attention last term?"

"No," Toni replied quickly and matter-of-factly.

"The point exactly."

Toni sighed audibly. She looked at Lily for some much needed support but apparently, Lily agreed with James and Sirius. "I can't believe it!" she threw her hands up in surrender. She turned to Sirius and looked at him straight in the eye. "You don't call that flirting when you were spending half your time with Kiara!"

"Are you guys fightin' over me?" another voice interrupted. It was Kiara who just arrived with Vince. She sat beside Sirius and asked in a bubbly tone, "What was it about?" When no one answered her (because Toni's icy glare was burning holes through Sirius' and James' heads), she muttered, "I heard my name…"

"Well…" Lily started. She smiled apologetically at Toni when the latter eyed her in disbelief. "This boy, who appeared out of nowhere…" she continued slowly, weaving every word carefully, "was chatting with Toni earlier – Eric from Hufflepuff – and… virtually wooed her in order to get free catch-up lessons in Arithmancy… and—"

"And Sirius thinks that he was flirting with me," Toni finished the sentence as fast as she could. And in the same thousand-miles-per-second speed, she asked Kiara, "Flirting?! That's not flirting!"

Kiara smiled at Toni like she was looking at a five-year-old child who was crying for her lost doll. "Oh… why are we talking about your shortcomings in determining whether a guy is flirting with you, anyway?"

Toni gave her the share of icy glare. "Honestly! You're spending too much time with Vince that he's actually rubbed his awful sense of humor on you."

"Hey! I resent that," Vince (who was busy buttering his toast) looked up and said, pointing his butter knife towards her direction.

"Alright then," Sirius interrupted. "No one was flirting with you, honey—"

Toni smirked. "I'm doing it," she then muttered, eyeing Sirius like she was taunting him. "I'm going to help him with Arithmancy—"

"Why?!"

"Because that's the humane thing to do," Toni replied in a tone matter-of-factly.

"Humane?!" Sirius retaliated just as fast. "He's not asking for you to join him save humankind! No," he said with a voice that was breaking every other syllable. "That's the annoying thing to do. You know, just like he is – as I truly believe," he interrupted when Toni opened her mouth to object, "and… he is… well…" Well, he was apparently finding it hard to find words in order to change Toni's mind.

"Very hands-on," Kiara said casually, helping Sirius with his dilemma.

"Right – what?!" For a whole second, Sirius sat stumped staring at Kiara. "What exactly does that mean?"

"Like… you know," Kiara grabbed Sirius' hand and said, "'Hey, how are you today?' 'Are you doing alright?'" she added, putting her arm around him this time. "That kind of thing. Most Hufflepuff girls are very much aware of that. Only they don't really mind it."

Sirius gave an indescribably awful expression. While James exhaled an amused realization of "Oh…" and Lily gave out a chuckle and said, "Well, that's going to be interesting…"

"You're kidding right?" James stirred the conversation and looked at Lily disbelievingly. "Is that a trick question?"

Lily paused. Something there wasn't right. She looked at James with knitted brows and said, "It's not even a question," matter-of-factly.

"So, you're just letting your friend get close to that _Error_ from Arithmancy?" James said, saying the word 'Error' like he was gagging it up from his throat.

"It's… 'Eric'! And… you're affected because…?"

"B-because… w— you know… uh— annoying… and hands-on!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Are you deliberately trying to pick a fight?"

"Oh, he just wants you to notice him, that's all, basically," Sirius interfered. "You haven't said a word about his finally-I-took-a-bath look."

"Oh give it a rest, you troll," James said, waving Sirius off.

The conversation would've turned a hundred and eighty degrees back to James' socks and bathroom incident, but the owls arrived at that moment and a particularly large parcel landed right in front of them carried by a rather tired-looking owl.

"Oh, man, I can't believe Zonko's actually owled these," James said, looking like a child opening a very huge Christmas gift.

"Yeah, I thought they were just trying to get rid of us," Sirius pointed out, joining James' pure joy.

"Zonko's?" Lily muttered, the tone of frustration evident in her voice – if only James was listening – which he was not exactly doing since he was currently very engrossed with the contents of the package.

"That is totally immature, Sirius," Toni said, rolling her eyes, sharing Lily's displeasure.

"Well, at least those got the two of them to shut up, eh?" Remus muttered to Lily. He had been quiet since he got there; looking for the girl he bumped into earlier, but decided to join in the conversation as he couldn't see her anywhere.

"Terrific!" Lily said sarcastically. "Whatever… I'm going to pretend this didn't happen." Then, she looked at James straight in the eye and said, "I don't want to see anyone's hair green, red, blue, gold, silver, or—"

"But your hair is red," James interrupted, with a smile flashing from ear to ear.

"That's beside the point."

"Don't worry, Lils," James reassured and gave Lily a kiss on the cheek.

"Five galleons I say that's the kiss of lies and deceit," Remus whispered again to Lily, but loud enough for James and Sirius to hear him.

"Oh, shush there you mad dog and eat your bread," Sirius said pushing the platter of toast towards Remus.

Remus smirked at him and bit into his toast like a 'mad dog'. "Butter?" he said, asking Kiara to push the butter towards him, too.

Kiara obliged and reached for the butter and slid it along the table; only, Remus seemed that it looked like it moved by itself – that she only followed the direction of the tray, which appeared to be a couple inches ahead of her hand. He glanced at her and realized that she was aware that it moved by itself, too. But Kiara only shrugged and Remus also dismissed it thinking that it was probably only one of the ghosts.

* * * * *

Gryffindor Quidditch team had just reserved the pitch for use after classes. As Toni – clad in her Quidditch robes – stepped out into the late afternoon sun, she noticed a particularly familiar Slytherin a few yards ahead banging his surroundings with his closed fists like he was trapped inside an invisible box. She slowed down and watched Snape struggle to free himself from the kind of trap he was in. Although most students passing by were ignoring him – with occasional people pointing and sniggering – something told her that this was no ordinary every afternoon thing for Snape…

Toni looked on with much curiosity as Snape pulled out his wand. He paused for a while – obviously thinking of some kind of spell; for he was always good with spells. And with determination clearly etched on his face, he pointed his wand in front of him and muttered something Toni clearly wouldn't know as she was watching from afar.

But the spell, unlike Snape's fists, didn't stop within the walls of the invisible box. It flew straight right through and through and it ended up hitting the back of an unsuspecting fellow Slytherin, who tumbled down on the grass before him as if someone pushed him really _really_ hard to the ground.

The other Slytherins who were talking with the unsuspecting boy (before being pushed down towards the ground face first) laughed as the boy struggled to get up to his feet as quick as he could. And as quick as possible, he stood up, brushed his robes and then looked around demanding, "Who did that?!" But the people around him only shrugged.

Toni narrowed her eyes with a realization forming in her head, as the boy toppled on the grass; and then swearing that it wasn't her imagination, she heard a faint sound of boisterous laughs in the halls – the sound of someone so recognizable…

She quickly left Snape and followed the sound.

"Sirius!"

Sirius was laughing contentedly with himself as he watched Snape getting annoyed to his skin by the minute. Then, he suddenly turned around and stopped when he saw Toni looking at him like some disappointed mother; her hands on her hips. His laughs suddenly faded into grunts and coughs and then a smile broke his handsome face.

"Toni!" he said excitedly, not even trying to hide the joy he was in at that moment.

Toni didn't say a word. She waited until she reached Sirius and then, without any kind of warning, she gave him a rightful smack on the arm. "What are you doing?" she demanded, her mouth hanging open disbelievingly. She paused, as if waiting for a reply, but then started again even before Sirius could make another sound. "Aargh…! I told you to leave him alone. You never know what he's capable of doing."

"Oh, c'mon. I was just having fun," Sirius said, pouting his lips and then making puppy moaning sounds. "Is that too much a boy bored out of his wits could ask?"

"Ugh! Stop that," Toni demanded, when Sirius continued making his moaning. "Can't you be mature once in a while?"

Sirius sighed audibly. Then, he crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at her. "Why are you so scared of what he could do? It's not like he's going to suddenly go amuck and throw Unforgivables on everyone."

"You actually think that he's not capable of doing that?" Toni said, wide-eyed. "Do you actually believe he's got some sense of pure good in him hidden somewhere in that dark of as soul?"

"Well… no," Sirius replied bluntly just as the last syllable escaped Toni's lips. "I actually think he's got some sense of pure cowardice hidden somewhere in that slimy thing he has for a soul."

Toni's eyes got wider as if finally getting Sirius' point. "Ohh…" she said. Then, she suddenly gave Sirius another smack on the arm.

"Hey…" Sirius groaned, as he rubbed a hand over his arm. "I'm hurting over you over here." He paused. "Literally."

Toni glared at him. "I'm freakin' serious," she said through gritted teeth.

Sirius was about to say something when they heard Malfoy's voice talking to Snape.

"You're making an entire fool of yourself, Snape," Malfoy drawled on as Snape kept pounding on the invisible box he was in.

"Can't you see I can't get out of this – bloody— sorry," Snape said when the trap suddenly disappeared – obviously – and almost hit Malfoy with his fists. (Malfoy took a step back in his surprise, while trying to keep his perpetually emotionless face, well, cold – although his eyes gave an unnoticeable twitch.) Snape straightened up to regain the remaining dignity he had and acted as if nothing happened. "Wait 'till I get my hands on that Potter."

Malfoy took a second before saying anything. It was obvious that he was mildly interested in the magic that was cast on Snape a while ago. Then, at the corner of his eye, he saw a very recognizable Sirius – with Toni – scampering away through the open corridors. "No," he said. "It's Black. Of course, that depraved imp."

* * * * *

"And need I say that Malfoy is an entirely different vile of a creature ever to crawl on this planet?" Toni blurted out as soon as they reached a safe distance from the part of the grounds where Snape was.

"Right. Right," Sirius said, waving his hand to say 'fine fine fine'.

Toni sighed a desperate sigh. "Oh, you're hopeless," she muttered, rolling her eyes and throwing her hands to her sides. "I dunno why I—" but she didn't finish her sentence and just waved him off.

Just then, Lily appeared in the corridors with a smile crossing her face from ear to ear. "Hi there!" she greeted as she sauntered towards them.

"Hey. You're all… giddy," Toni greeted back, smiling at Lily with curiosity. "What'you up to?"

"I'm going to surprise James and watch his Quidditch practice," Lily replied in a very cheerful tone that you wouldn't know if she was kidding or serious.

"Oh."

"Oh?"

Sirius cleared his throat and approached slowly. After all, Lily might be a head shorter than him but she was very capable of turning him into an instant bug and then squashing him and then feeding him to the squid – so he wouldn't want to enrage her with something silly like, "You're aware that James has this geeky," he rolled his eyes to show that he, too, was against it, "strategy that no one is allowed to watch practice for the championship game."

But Lily didn't even bat an eye. Apparently, "I'm aware of that."

"Even a peep," Sirius added, as if that would make a clearer point across.

"So I've been told."

"Even if you roll around dirt and kiss his feet while chanting 'James Potter is the greatest man alive.'"

Lily paused for a while and narrowed her eyes. "So what's your point?"

Sirius smiled, looking at Lily like she just did something so adorable but very very silly. "Lils, for someone who's freakin' smart… it's kinda disappointing that you're not getting any of this."

Lily shrugged. "I get you." She paused and then added, "As insane as you may be."

"But… you're still planning on going?" Toni asked – just to make things clear.

"Yeah."

"Well, just to let you know," Sirius started again. "He doesn't even allow me to watch practice. I mean _ME_!"

Lily chuckled. "Well, you're his best friend. Meanwhile, I happen to be a…" she thought for a while because 'girlfriend' might come out as a little cheesy, "special friend."

Sirius let out a fake laugh of amusement. "Lily… Lily…" he said, shaking his head from side to side as if in disappointment. "But I'm Toni's…" he kept pointing at Toni for about three seconds all the while thinking of another word for 'boyfriend' because that 'jealous' issue might start up again. "Well… special friend, too. And I'm the captain's best friend," he added, obviously on a roll. "That's double connection right there, miss! Beat that!"

"Sirius, I'm best friends with Toni."

Sirius groaned in defeat. "Why do you always have to win?" He paused and then said, "Still I say, m'lady… tiny chance."

Lily crossed her arms and looked at Sirius pensively. "All right then," she said, throwing her arms in the air, "I'm going to change his mind." And then she walked off towards the Quidditch pitch.

Sirius scratched his head. Apparently, he wasn't convincing enough for Lily.

"Lily, wait, I'll go with you," Toni called before turning to Sirius and saying, "Stay away from Slytherins." Then she followed Lily without waiting for a reply from Sirius who was flashing a 'what did I do?' expression on his face.

As Toni caught up with Lily, she couldn't help siding with what Sirius just said… because if Lily wasn't stopped, another row might begin and that meant a bad-mood James was going to conduct practice. And from past experiences… that wasn't good news at all.

"You know, Sirius may be right," she said as soon as she caught up with Lily. "James may actually ask you not to watch practice."

"Don't be silly," said Lily with a chuckle.

"Well," Toni said, shrugging, "James and Sirius could be such… boys sometimes."

But Lily didn't mind her as the playing field came into view and she saw James talking to his team mates. "There he is. James!"

James stopped in midsentence the second he heard that familiar voice. Slowly, he turned around and saw her. "Lils… What are you doing here?"

"I'm going to watch you… practice…" Lily replied with a cheerful smile. "You know, for support. Go Gryffindor."

James stared at her for a moment. That was weird. And then his expression turned into something Lily couldn't describe.

"Why? You… you don't want me here?"

"No…" James replied as fast as he could, conscious to use a very delicate tone. "I mean, no. Not— I mean—" He cleared his throat and turned to his team mates. "Will you excuse us for a second?" Then, he walked a little further away while Lily followed him.

"What do you mean 'no'?" Lily started the minute James stopped walking.

"I mean," James shrugged, "no, I want you here, but—Lils, it's not like what you're thinking…"

Lily sighed audibly, obviously a bit annoyed. "I thought you wanted me to be more 'spontaneous'," she said, mocking James with the word 'spontaneous', "and fun. Well, I crossed out my N.E.W.T.s study for this afternoon and decided to show up here for you."

"Oh, c'mon. It's—" James took a deep breath. "I… don't want any… thing slipping out…" he paused, realizing what he just said. But still… he dared to continue. "You know," he added with a smile that was supposed to save him from any untimely death.

Lily just looked at James, with eyes narrowing ever so slowly as her hands began climbing to cross on her chest. "You don't trust me?"

"Oh no… Here we go."

"Here we go?"

"C'mon, Lils, I don't even make an exception for Sirius. Look, I promise I'll spend time with you later."

"All I'm trying to do is to show you some support and you totally shut me out," Lily said, her tone annoyed.

"I'm not shutting you out."

"Oh, fine, then. I'll be in the library and be boring," she said and then started to walk back to the castle.

"Oh, come on, Lily…" James called after her. "Don't be like that." When Lily wouldn't stop walking, he went after her. "Lily, c'mon. Don't be like this. You're making a big deal out of this."

"Oh, James…" Lily exhaled, fuming. "Why do you have to be like that? You don't even understand effort."

"I completely understand effort. I do! I swear!" James exclaimed, not really getting what Lily meant by that.

Lily suddenly stopped and turned to look at James with a menacing glare. "No you don't." She paused. "And what makes you think I'm gonna be watching you? What if I was there to support Toni?"

James took a step back. "What?" he said – confused and confounded. He might also have been seeing birds chirping around his head at that time. "You just said you were there for me. Look, can we not argue right now?"

"Huh?" Lily smirked. "Who said we're arguing? This is so small a deal I'm not even— I'm forgetting all about it right now – Oh, what am I doing here?" she suddenly said, faking a lost person then she turned around and made for the castle, leaving James dumbfounded. "I swear I was studying for N.E.W.T.s just a second ago," she muttered to herself as if she had just been struck by a Memory Charm.

"Lily…" James groaned, calling her attention but she wouldn't listen. He sighed and then turned back to the field.

"You look like sky fell down on you," Toni commented, a smile playing on her lips, as soon as James came back to join them.

"But she totally blew everything out of proportion!" James exclaimed, throwing his hands in defeat.

"Well, don't complain to me."

"But you have to admit it," James said, eyeing Toni directly. "She overreacted."

"I— don't kno—" Toni stopped in midsentence. She definitely didn't want to get in the middle of this. "I'm not sure I have enough mind power at his particular moment in time to have an opinion," she answered and then walked back to her team mates.

"Oh, come on!"

* * * * *

As she just said, Lily went back into the Gryffindor tower to get her books and some parchment. Then, she headed out the portrait hole with the school library in mind. But just as she came out of the portrait, she heard her name.

"Evans…" someone called in a very calm soothing voice.

Lily looked up and saw a fellow Gryffindor who was on his way back into the dormitories. "Hi, Adrian," she greeted with a smile, trying to hide her recent irritation with James Pothead! and continued walking.

But Adrian turned around and joined her down the corridors. "So, Headgirl, where you going to?" he asked; his tone not changing – it always sounded so safe and calming.

Lily knitted her eyebrows and looked at him. Curiously, Adrian wasn't really someone who'd come up and talk to her. "Actually… I'm on my way to the library—"

"N.E.W.T.s?" Adrian guessed, pointing at the books that Lily was carrying and she nodded as a reply. "So, no Quidditch for you today, huh?"

Lily sighed audibly. "That James Potter—!" She paused, after realizing what Adrian just said. "Wait, were you there?"

"Uh-no," Adrian answered with a shrug. "I just guessed… I guess." They walked in silence for about five seconds then he started again. "He's gonna come around, you know. I mean, if he wants to have you walking down the aisle so that you'll be stuck with him for eternity, he's not forever gonna be a jer—"

"Down the aisle?" Lily chuckled in surprise. "James – thinking of getting married?"

"Be the grandest miracle of a lifetime, wouldn't it?" Adrian replied with twinkling eyes.

"Hmmm…" Lily nodded in agreement. "But I'm not even thinking of getting married myself—," she stopped and looked at Adrian curiously. Surely, James wasn't thinking about getting… married… "Adrian, don't tell me you've been talking to James—"

Adrian chuckled. "Everybody could see the way he acts around you, Headgirl." He smiled up to his eyes – with their perpetual dreamy state.

"Yeah… but I wouldn't mind hitting him on the head right now," Lily muttered and then turned back to him. "Adrian… do you want something?"

Adrian looked like he was about to deny it but just as quick he smiled admittedly. "You've finally read my mind."

"What is it?"

"A secret."

"A secret?" Lily snorted. "You're actually just as weird as any other boy in this school," she said matter-of-factly.

"Hmmm… I can be weirder," Adrian said and then extended his hand for Lily to take.

"Where are we going?"

"Not to the library…"

__

~*~*~*~

put your heart in my hands... you'll be safe here... -- rivermaya, "you'll be safe here"

So, what do you think? Don't be shy, leave a review… distract me from my evil dementors…!!! Right. Till next chapter. I'm almost finished with Chapter Three although it still needs all those revisions and stuff. But it's definitely alive. *Mwah*


	4. Missing Bolts

__

ARE YOU CRAZY?!

IN HOW MANY WAYS CAN I ANSWER YES TO THAT?

Hey, it's Chapter Three as promised. Sorry, I'm a little drained right now so I won't be going on about my life for the moment. Maybe for the next chapter. Hmmm…

But anyway, here goes chapter three. Hope you enjoy reading and kindly leave a review afterwards.

So, since Book 6 has been released and obviously I've started Oblivious before Book 5 and then started Curtain Calls right where Oblivious finished, there would be inconsistencies with the present canon. But, anyway, if you're a sport about it… you'll realize it's fanfiction, right? And by the way, JK Rowling – only the richest author in the magical land! – she's the one who owns Harry Potter. Just borrowing some characters for the story.

don't be surprised if i love you for all that you are... i couldn't help it... it's all your fault... -- alanis morissette, "head over feet"

~*~*~*~

**CHAPTER THREE: Missing Bolts**

Remus stared at the notebook as if somehow, he would be able to know what was inside it. He was back at the library, drumming his fingers restlessly on the table, hoping that the girl from that morning would come looking for her lost belonging. Aside from deliberating with himself if he would take a peek inside it or not, he was also studying – trying very _very_ hard to concentrate on his N.E.W.T.s revisions – something Lily ought to have been doing if she wasn't 'shut out' by James Potter and then swept off by Adrian somewhere in the castle grounds.

He was about to pick up the notebook – decided that gazing at it from six inches from his face would make a difference – when it came flying out of his reach all of a sudden… He was sure that if he thought this thing was also moving by itself (like what he thought of Kiara's butter-trick at breakfast), he would voluntarily check himself in at the Hospital Wing.

"Hey… what is this?"

Fortunate for his questionable sanity, it was actually Sirius who grabbed the notebook and started checking out the covers. Sirius moved a bit distant from Remus so as to prevent him from taking it back.

"Oh, bloody hell," Remus sighed. "What are you doing here?" He stood up and extended his palm towards Sirius, then said in the lamest possible tone, "Give it back, you maniac."

Sirius chuckled as he looked at the back of the notebook. Then he raised an eyebrow flashing an exaggerated look of confusion. "This isn't yours…"

"It's mine," Remus insisted, rolling his eyes. His hand was still ready to receive back what his friend just took.

"It has a _flower_ drawn at the back of it," Sirius said, flashing the back of the notebook. Indeed, there was a lone tulip drawn in charcoal at the back. "You're telling me it's yours?"

Sirius smiled mischievously.

Remus looked him in the eye, then at the notebook. How to snatch it back from Sirius when he could pounce around the library like the big black dog of an Animagus he was?

But apparently, being Remus' friend meant that Sirius had a very good idea what Remus was thinking about. Slowly, he tried to pull the notebook behind his back. Then, in another second…

Remus lunged across the gap and playfully twisted Sirius' arm around and then grabbed the notebook successfully.

"Fine," Sirius muttered when Remus got hold of the notebook. He crossed his arms and looked at Remus with feigned offense. "Be a flower-loving mad doggie. It's kinda gay if you ask me," he said, with a shrug.

"No one's asking you," came Remus' reply then he paused and looked at Sirius with narrowing eyes. This wasn't normal. "What are you doing here anyway? The Quidditch field's _that_ way," he said, pointing his thumb to the window near them – that was overseeing the pitch.

Sirius turned to the window and then leaned over. His hands were spread across the sill looking towards the direction of the Quidditch field. He looked like someone who just woke up in the morning trying to catch some of that fresh air – only, he wasn't in his room and it definitely wasn't morning.

"That's why I'm here," Sirius replied casually, like it was something he did everyday.

Remus shook his head. "You make no sense. Well, that makes sense, anyway," he said. Then Sirius turned to him with a somehow confused look. "That you make no sense," he concluded and smiled irritatingly wide.

Sirius mouthed a 'ha ha' and before turning back to the window, told, "Well, at least I have a girlfriend."

Remus snorted. "That's the most childish comeback I've ever heard," he said, as he went back to his table.

"While you draw flowers at the back of your notebooks," Sirius retaliated without taking his eyes off the open window.

"Still a big mystery what Toni particularly saw in you."

"I'm devilishly good looking. Now, drop it."

"She's not _that_ shallow… unfortunately for you," Remus said. "So, there must be something in your head that she likes." But in an instant, a realization dawned on him. He turned at Sirius again and chuckled. "Aah… you're watching out for that Eric guy," he said, as he stood up and walked towards Sirius. "You're jealous."

"No."

"Threatened."

"That's the same thing. And no, I'm not," Sirius insisted, trying to sound as dignified as possible. "Why would I be jealous of someone so pathologically vain?" Then, tossing his hair like a girl he continued and started mocking, "I'm Eric. I'm so beautiful. Hug me. Kiss me. Marry me."

Remus' smile stretched from ear to ear. This was the first time he saw Sirius being overly protective of a girl. "Well, yeah, you're not jealous. You're _insanely_ insecure," he said matter-of-factly. "You _are_ aware that if she finds out that you're spying on her, you're going to meet your end, right?"

But instead of defending himself, surprisingly, Sirius agreed without batting an eye. "Kill me and behead me, yeah," he said then he turned his eyes off the field and to Remus. "But I'm not _spying_." There was the denial. "I'm merely…" he stretched his hand out as if beholding the view before him, "…overlooking the scenery." And just then, he conjured a pair of Omnioculars from his robe pocket.

A snigger escaped Remus. "With that?" He pointed at the magical telescopes Sirius was now using to 'overlook' the scenery. He shook his head when Sirius shushed him; and then turned to go back to his table. But not even halfway to his destination (which was only a few steps from the window, by the way), Remus heard fast footfalls and sure it was, Sirius grabbed the notebook from the table and hurriedly opened it to any page.

"Full moon?!" He exclaimed before the people in the library shushed him.

Because of the surprising attack, Remus took a few seconds before everything in his brain processed and went into place. "Give it here," he said, trying to grab the notebook back.

But Sirius was now ever determined in scrutinizing the full moon drawn on the page he opened. But fortunately, Remus got it back after the second try.

"I knew it!" Sirius exclaimed again. This time, some of the students who shushed him before were now glaring bloody murder. "That's just not only _not_ yours…" he said in a softer voice, but no less excited and amused, "…it's a _girl's_ sketch book."

"A girl?" Remus tried to deny.

"A flower?" Sirius reiterated, pointing at the back of the notebook in Remus' hand. "Unless you're telling me that's a guy's drawing pad, I'm telling you… that's really _really_ not right."

"Fine," Remus admitted in exasperation. Sometimes, talking to Sirius could be exhausting on its own. "Now will you shut up?"

Maybe because it was the whispering that was why the message didn't quite reach Sirius…

"You're in love… I knew it!" Sirius yelled, forgetting about the volume of his voice again. Apparently, he wasn't used being in the library that much. He stopped laughing when he heard a woman clearing her throat to get both their attention.

They looked at where the noise came from and found Madam Pince, the librarian – looking like her usual thin and irritable self – glaring at them irately as if telling them 'Silence!!!' with her vicious vulture-like eyes.

At this particular moment in time with this particular person in question… Sirius didn't dare joke. He didn't even make another sound nor a grunt – because he was sure that she was capable of kicking his ass out the library by her scrawny legs if she wished it. And he wouldn't want to be kicked out of the library. He still had some 'overlooking' to do.

So, the two of them smiled and flashed apologetic looks before Madam Pince left them…

* * * * *

After about an hour, James declared a break from practice. He was in position to land towards the ground when he spotted a red-haired girl from afar – with a boy. And without thinking… at all… he quickly zoomed down and grabbed an unsuspecting Toni back up in the air just as she was on her way down.

"Whoa!" Toni exclaimed, regaining her balance. "James, what the hell?"

James didn't say a word until he was able to drag Toni up the distance where he saw the red head.

"You could've killed me!"

"You were ten feet off the ground," James said with a shrug as a lame apology, just to get it out of the way. Then, he quickly pointed to where the red-haired girl was standing off in the distance – she was near the castle grounds talking to a boy. "That's Lily." He turned to Toni expecting her to agree with him but all she was, was glaring at him for dragging her back up without any warning (she never looked at the direction James was pointing) and then, now, for ignoring her 'near-death' experience. "Isn't it?" he dared even continue to ask. He might've flinched but it was by far unnoticeable.

And because of this, without any hesitation, notice, or any word nor grunt… Toni pushed James out of his broom; but luckily (and Toni probably had known this for she was looking strictly unapologetic), James had a very quick reflex and held on to the broom but he was only hanging by his hands.

"Hey, what'd you do that for?!" James demanded, as he struggled to get back up on his broom.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought we were playing, 'let's see who falls off his broom and break his skull first'." She rolled her eyes and then glanced to where James was pointing a while ago. "And James, how could you even see that far away? Lily's not the only redhead in Hogwarts, you know."

"That's Lily. I know it," James insisted, pointing at the girl again.

Toni rolled her eyes again; then, acting totally shocked, she put a hand on her chest and said, "Oh, is that a boy – not James Potter – taking a stroll in the school grounds with Lily Evans? My goodness," she continued this time, putting the same hand on her forehead, "I wonder what they're up to."

But James didn't get the complete and utter derisiveness in Toni's voice and action. Oh please… "Yes!" he exclaimed. "That's a guy."

"I was being sarcastic," Toni said sharply and frankly, looking at James with eyes narrowing by the second.

"Is this because of the fight we had earlier?" James asked. Apparently, Toni's mighty fine talent in sarcasm was being ignored that afternoon. But that wouldn't stop her.

"Yes! Oh yes! Because of your fight, now she's gone off with another man! Tragic…" She paused, looking at James looking at her like he wouldn't know what to think. "Please. Don't be that self-centered."

James stared again at the grounds for about two seconds, then, without another word, he left Toni and swooped down to land.

"Hey, where are you going?" Toni asked, as she followed him down.

James paused for a moment. "Uh – wash my hair," he said as a dumb excuse, running a hand across his hair. Then, off he walked towards the castle.

Toni snorted at the ridiculousness. "You're going over there, aren't you?" she said, catching up with James.

James stopped walking. He looked at Toni as if he was about to say something utterly smart but only managed a snort of denial and a, "No…" Then, he turned around again and started walking faster than ever.

"You are…" Toni called out; she was already almost running now because James seemed to be taking one giant step at a time. "You're jealous… and for an utterly shallow reason," she said matter-of-factly.

"No, I'm not."

Toni sighed audibly – or panted; it wasn't clear because she had been running after James. "Look, if you go there, she will kill you for not trusting her. She'll kill you, and then tear you apart, and then hang your head in her four-poster that she would gaze at every night remembering her horrid glory."

In an instant, James stopped. He turned around and walked back to Toni who was now looking at him with knitted brows… because a smile was ever so widely flashing across his face.

Toni took a step back and put her broom in front of her in pointless defense – afraid that James suddenly turned into a crazy maniac.

"Are you aware," James began, the stupid smile still on his face unfading, "that you're beginning to sound more and more like Sirius every day?"

Toni flashed a shocked look – this time, she wasn't being sarcastic. She gritted her teeth and hit James on the shoulder that caused him to let out a genuine groan of pain. "I'm not kidding!"

"Neither do I!"

"Not that! Lily! If she realizes that you're spying on her, you're dead."

"See! Sirius Black," James said in a delighted voice. He only stopped and pretended to be normal again when Toni wouldn't take her murderous glare off of him. "Alright…" His eyes rolled. "I'm not _spying_. It's not 'spying' when I go there and see them up close – without them seeing me, of course. Spying is when you're hiding behind the common room window with a pair of Omnioculars in your hands." He smiled and then started off towards the castle again.

"I'm serious!" Toni called after him. When James stopped and grinned mischievously again, she said, "I mean serious. S-e-r-i-o-u-s. Not Sirius Black, you dunghead."

James sighed audibly. "Oh… I miss the days when you actually respected me as your team captain… Remember that?"

"Remember what? That was in third year when I was scared that you'd play one of your immature pranks on me. You weren't team captain…"

But James didn't say another word and continued his way back.

Toni followed suit. "Don't make your situation right now even worse. You're being possessive," she said, walking very quickly in order to catch up. But James suddenly stopped at the word 'possessive' that Toni literally bumped into him. "Ouch. Watch it."

James didn't move at all and let Toni regain her balance to stand herself in front of him. He was about to say something but decided not to. Then, he rolled his eyes and grumbled under his breath, "Women," before he started again for the castle. This time, he really was going inside for a quick snack in the Great Hall, as Toni was following closely behind him.

* * * * *

Sirius sat at the corner of the table Remus occupied. His hand was on his chin as he looked at Remus, who was keeping the well-renowned sketch pad close – but as far away from Sirius as possible.

Remus was now quietly studying for N.E.W.T.s when he saw at the corner of his eye, Sirius putting his hand on the table.

Remus pulled the notebook closer.

Then Sirius started tapping his fingers on the table, just staring intently.

"Will you get out of here?" Remus said, apparently getting unnerved.

"Why?" Sirius asked with a smile so wide, it could probably tear his face apart. "So I'd leave you alone with your sketch pad? What are you hiding in there, anyway? Don't tell me there's a picture of you in there… naked! Aaahhh!!!" Sirius said, shielding his eyes – all the while, remembering to keep the volume of his voice to a minimal. He didn't want the librarian glaring at him again.

But it was Remus who glared. "For your information," he began, straightening in his seat, "I happen to respect people's privacy, thank you very much," he continued, all the while being mocked by Sirius while he muttered every word. "That's why I'm not letting you have it."

"So, you haven't looked in it?"

"No."

Sirius yawned – apparently getting bored. "C'mon. It's better than having your face stuck on the pages of these… books all day," he said, gesturing at the pile on the table.

Remus leaned back on his chair and gave Sirius an incredulous stare.

"What?" Sirius asked innocently.

"I happen to be studying for N.E.W.T.s, Mr. Black. Just so you have an idea, the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests, if you didn't know – need a thorough revision of your lessons and be given serious attention to – IN CASE," Remus interrupted even before Sirius could say, 'Hey, that's my name!' which he most certainly would, considering that he was trying to irritate the living mad werewolf out of Remus. "_In case_ you haven't heard, all seventh year students are having them before the school ends. It'll serve as our final exams. I suggest you get yourself ready just in case you want to end up with a job after you leave."

Sirius yawned again. True, it was half-expected of him to be bored like that, but still, Remus expected for him to react the other half. "I know that," he muttered lazily. "I'm just bored… They're having a break from practice."

But there was no response from Remus, as he was back busily reading a book.

"Aren't you even going to ask me if I saw that Eric guy?"

"No," Remus replied flatly.

"Great," Sirius groaned. "Nice to know my friend has been taking an interest in my life."

"Stop being such a girl, Padfoot."

Sirius opened his mouth in shock but didn't say anything. Any word that might come out of his mouth would surely be used against him. So, he didn't push the subject as he didn't really want to seem like he was throwing a _girly_ tantrum. He stayed quiet – to Remus' gratefulness – but only for ten minutes. Because… just as Remus was engrossed with his book, Sirius made for it and lunged at the notebook. He was able to grab it unguarded from Remus' sight.

"Oy! You're relentless!" Remus cried out in surprise. He stood up when Sirius did, too and ran towards the window as fast as he could.

Sirius couldn't go to the other parts of the library as the other students would surely bury him alive if he made any more ruckuses. He quickly scanned the drawings while trying to keep the notebook out of Remus' reach. "Oh, come on. I just want to know the name of the girl you're obsessing about," he said, still looking for the full moon.

"Give it here!" Remus demanded but to no avail. Thus, when desperate times called for desperate measures, he wrestled for the notebook in Sirius' hand.

"Hey, I got a name! Lucy…" Sirius said, with Remus' arm still around his neck and with his hand – which was holding the notebook – stretching as far as it could reach. "Lucy Waltzer?" He tried reading the signature at the bottom right of the page.

Just then, Madam Pince appeared again, glowering at them. Remus quickly straightened his robes, while Sirius… Sirius thought of pretending that he was fingering through the volumes in the book shelves beside them while another hand was rubbing his chin trying to look intent. It was comical, if only another person gifted with such humor were to see it. Unfortunately, it was Madam Pince and she wasn't very fond of jokes so her lips thinned in disapproval rather than smiled and then headed back to her table when Remus and Sirius seemed to be taking their acting very seriously.

Remus took this chance to grab the sketch pad back when Sirius was clearly distracted by the librarian. "It's Walker, you idiot," he said, looking at the signature at the bottom of the drawing.

"Really?" Sirius said, snatching the precious notebook away from Remus again. "Let's see what else this artist girlfriend of yours has made."

"No. Give it back." And… then… Remus tussled with Sirius again.

But they were interrupted… again. But this time, it wasn't the glaring librarian who was gazing at them. It was, actually, Lily's voice that stopped them from twisting all their joints just for a notebook. "Hi, guys."

Remus straightened up at the sound of her voice. Clearly, Lily thought that Remus was the most mature out of all them four friends so he wasn't about to prove her wrong right then. But, just one quick strike at the back of Sirius' head – he could live with that.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked curiously. She looked at Sirius who was busy looking through something.

But she need not ask what it was because he held it up and declared, "Remus is obsessed about a girl who draws full moons."

Lily smiled but tilted her head with knitted brows, implying that she didn't really get what he meant by that.

"Well," Remus began an attempt to change the subject, "Sirius here, who's alien to the library, was just spying –" he pointed out the window "– on your friend just to see if 'Eric from Arithmancy' is lurking around near her."

Lily chuckled and looked at Sirius. "Spying?"

"Well – uh – c – I mean…" Sirius stuttered like he never had stuttered before. "Who needs tutoring in Arithmancy?!" he shouted and then covered his mouth instantly realizing what he had just done.

"Apparently… Eric and the rest of the population who's not you," Remus replied matter-of-factly. "Would it kill you to understand that not all people are 'Sirius Black, Arithmancy wizard extraordinaire'? Although the logic behind that last thing is _really_ hard to grasp."

"I'm beauty and brains," Sirius muttered. "Live with it."

The librarian, who probably heard Sirius shouting a while ago, appeared again and cleared her throat. Lividly, she pointed to the 'Silence' sign on the wall and then turned back to him. "Or do I need to cast a Silencing Charm on you?" she demanded. Sirius mouthed a 'No' with an exaggerated shake of his head. Then, satisfying herself with this answer, she walked away, but not without giving him a warning look. A _final_ warning look.

Sirius mocked a salute at the librarian's back as she walked away. Then, he turned back around almost tossing Lily aside. "Sorry." He didn't notice that she was already beside him. He then remembered what Remus just said because she was staring at him looking like she _indeed_ remembered, too! "Great," he groaned, "now I know for sure I'm dead. Girl friends tell each other everything."

"Sirius, if Toni found out that you don't trust her, she'll be really upset."

"I trust her! I do! The one I don't trust is that 'Hey, look at me!' –" he put an arm around Remus' shoulders "'– I'm gorgeous. I'm delicious.'" He finished with a wink.

"Aarrgh…! Get off me!" Remus said; a disgusted look clearly painted on his face.

Lily shook her head. "Now, how am I supposed to get that image off my head?" she muttered, rolling her eyes away from their direction. "Fine. I'll let this one slide. Just this one. And just because I'm going to have to study for N.E.W.T.s now."

"You too?" Sirius instantly groaned.

Lily smiled an affirmative answer to Sirius. Then, out of nowhere, when she turned around to leave, someone suddenly appeared and bumped into her. "Sorry," she said and then looked up to see… Lucius Malfoy. Her expression swiftly turned grim.

"No harm done," Malfoy drawled, with a sneer playing along his lips.

Remus was suddenly on alert. Even Sirius amazingly transformed into Super Sirius (if that was the case) and turned into a nasty foe. He took the stride and stood between Lily and Malfoy – glaring at Malfoy, the loathsome creature of the dark.

Malfoy smiled wickedly. "My, my. Aren't we becoming quite familiar with the library?"

"Why can't you just cease to exist?"

Malfoy drew closer to Sirius, not showing any change in his calm, clammy emotionless face. "If you hate me that much, Black, then get out of my way."

"I don't hate you," Sirius said, mocking the drawl that was coming out of Malfoy's mouth. "I _loathe_ you."

Malfoy chuckled. "Now we know the feeling's mutual," he said. He set Sirius aside with the back of his hand and said, "Get out of my way, Black."

Sirius pushed Malfoy's hand away from him. _Oh filthy hands!_ And he watched as Malfoy went on his way, while gesturing as if he was strangling him from his back.

"Hey, cool down," Remus said to Sirius, who was clearly unnerved by Malfoy's presence.

"I'm okay," Sirius replied, straightening his robes. "I can't believe he's still a Prefect," he said remembering what Malfoy did last term with the Polyjuice Potion and Kiara in the corridors – which of course, affected him because Lucius borrowed his face for that. "Evil depraved albino monkey!" he added just as a bonus for him.

"Dumbledore surely have his own reasons for that," Lily said with a shrug. "I mean, James and I are Head Boy and Girl. We would have a reason to monitor him, for one."

"Can't we just feed him to Remus during the full moon?" Sirius suggested, apparently back to his insane self.

"Oh, gross! Get off it. I think I have more taste than that – even if I'm not myself."

"But you don't eat artists, do you?"

Remus shot him an ominous 'shut up or I'll kick your ass' glare.

"The girl who draws full moons?" Lily said, half-kidding. "I was just quoting Sirius," she added, shrugging with a smile.

"Yeah. He's obsessed," Sirius replied before Remus could even open his mouth.

"I'm not obsessed," Remus denied. He remembered that Sirius was still holding the notebook and snatched it away from him as long as there was still opportunity. "And I didn't know about any full moons in here either until you invaded her privacy."

"Oh come on!" Sirius groaned. "It's not like that fell off her. She must've dropped it _intentionally_."

"Actually, yes, she dropped it – after I literally bumped into her earlier and sent everything she had flying across the floor."

"You mean, you sent _her_ flying across the floor?" Sirius muttered.

"Hey, you're taller than me," Remus said, looking at Sirius from head to toe; and below his breathe, he muttered, "You'd probably squash her to death."

"Fine. She probably sent _you_ flying across the hall, then? That's more precise considering—"

"I'm not that thin," Remus interrupted before Sirius could say another word.

And then finally, they noticed Lily's amusement as she was watching the two of them. She turned to Remus and smiled. "You really like her?"

"I think we've been through that already." Sometimes… Sirius couldn't… just… shut his mouth…

"No," Lily said, rolling her eyes, "_you've_ been through that." She turned back to Remus. "So… who's she? What House? Is she a prefect? Cause I can definitely help you if she's a prefect."

"Lucy Walker!" Sirius smarted his way into the conversation again. "Full moon sketcher connoisseur," he said, bowing his head.

But, fortunately, Remus had the ability to ignore him. "No… she's not a prefect. I don't think so. And I'm not really sure what House she's in."

Sirius laughed. "You know, they actually say dogs are color-blind," he said, referring to the impossibility that Remus didn't even notice the color of her robe. Then, he leaned over and whispered but still loud enough for Lily to hear, "But in my human form, I can see color, is it different for you?"

That.

That finally earned him a very well-deserved smack at the back of the head.

"Ouch!" Sirius complained, rubbing his head but still managed to continue laughing. "You mean, you literally don't know anything about this girl? I thought you were joking. That's pathetic."

"Oh, at least I wasn't the one spying on his girlfriend looking out for that guy from Arithmancy."

Sirius smirked. "Thanks for bringing that up again."

Lily sighed audibly. "Won't you just admit that you're jealous?"

"I'm not je—! Hi there again, Madam Pince."

Lily and Remus turned to see the person Sirius was smiling stupidly at. It was Madam Pince alright, and her flaring nose. "You!" she said, pointing at the three of them. "Out of my library."

Lily couldn't believe it. "What?!" she exclaimed with eyes wide as saucers. Was this woman seriously throwing her out of the library? Her? Lily Evans? Head Girl? Dutiful student? Thrown out?

But Madam Pince didn't mind her or the excuses Sirius was conjuring out of nowhere. She stepped towards them and without much of a good bye or a thank you for coming, pushed them out of the library. "Go on. Out. Come back when you've finally understood the meaning of 'silence.'"

To Lily's surprise, Sirius was laughing when they came out of the library. "What? What's so funny?" she demanded, reaching Sirius. And when she finally did, she hit him on the arm and groaned, "I can't believe you got me kicked out of the library!"

But Sirius' twinkling eyes only looked back at her in much amusement. "Hey, I can't believe it either but there's always a first for everything. Would you believe James and I had been trying to do that since first year?"

Lily's eyes widened again, not believing that Sirius actually found this very entertaining. "What?!" This time, she hit him with a book she carried from the Gryffindor tower, and fortunately, never managed to put down the table.

"Okay. That's one time too many."

Lily stopped but was still glowering at him.

"That's why you make a mental note," Remus said, with an expression that said he was actually amused by Lily too (although he wouldn't say such a thing because he really wouldn't appreciate being at the end of a woman's rage), "_Never_ ever admit that you're with him when Madam Pince is breathing down your neck."

* * * * *

"Alright, I'm sorry!"

James entered the room without any warning nor sound except for what he just suddenly blurted out. Lily, who was busy studying in her usual corner in the Head Prefects' Room – her back at the door – was enjoying the quiet (and being _inside_) when the door opened letting in James Potter. She literally jumped in her seat for shock that her heart might just leave her chest.

"Are you trying to kill me?" she demanded as James walked slowly towards her.

"I'm sorry," he said, standing across her at the table. And then, with a thousand-mile-per-second speech he prepared, he started, "I'm sorry that I had to make you leave Quidditch practice earlier. I'm sorry that I said you were blowing everything out of proportion." He paused, most probably for dramatic effect, and in an almost desperate apologetic look said, "Lils…"

"Fine," Lily said after a second, shrugging. Then she went back to her studies.

James was stunned for a moment. He even looked behind him to see if she was actually talking to him. "Fine?" he asked, just to be sure. He couldn't believe it. He was thankful. But still, he couldn't quite believe it. That was easy. Not normal, yes. But… easy.

"Fine," Lily replied with a nod.

James actually wanted to touch Lily's forehead. Maybe she was sick? But, fortunately, he was sane enough to only pull a chair and sat next to her. "Really?"

"Yeah," Lily said, waving a hand.

James didn't know what else to say. Usually, they would go all boom and bang and then a door would be slammed on his face, or if he was unfortunate, she would hit him with the _real_ intention of hurting him. Then he would moan and mope for her until she decided he had had enough and forgive him.

It wasn't like he loved all that drama. He just didn't like the abnormality of _this_.

He stayed seated for what seemed to be an eternity because he was still half-expecting a piece of furniture to fly towards his face but fortunately, decided to contain himself with the newly found maturity of their relationship… or was there? He leaned back in his chair… then leaned forward – still not sure if Lily was suddenly replaced by a mad lunatic. Then, he entertained himself for a while by making circles of dust on the table with his finger. "Hmmm… So, anything interesting happened to you today?"

Lily didn't look up at James but replied in a casual tone, "You mean since you kicked me out of the Quidditch pitch? No," she shrugged, "Nothing much."

"So, you're angry with me!"

"I told you I'm not," Lily replied, still not looking up.

James was now starting to go crazy. This was a whole new world and he definitely had no idea how to breathe in it. He scratched his head when Lily didn't say anything more. Then, he started again. "Hmmm… Met any new people?" he asked casually.

"No," Lily replied flatly.

"Are you trying to make me paranoid?" he asked again, using the same tone.

There was a pause.

Lily turned a page then eventually, she nodded saying, "Yyyes."

James realized something. He knew about this tactic! Girls did this all the time to him. But usually not Lily because she liked speaking her mind.

It was the silent treatment.

"So, now you're not talking to me instead."

There was a pause again then Lily nodded but this time, she didn't say the word 'yes'.

James didn't like this treatment. He hated this treatment. He _loathed_ this treatment. He wanted to stab this treatment dead and bury it inside the Giant Squid's belly and then feed the squid to the dementors and then kill the dementors with pure joy of the Patronus Charm. And then he'd laugh and the world would cheer for him.

"Well, I'm not leaving here until you say something," he said so stubbornly and then made himself quite comfortable in his chair and crossed his arms looking extremely concentrated on Lily.

But Lily had the knack of ignoring him. It was a well-practiced forte she had had since she met him. But deep inside, she smiled.

It was the battle of the insane.

Perhaps, James was starting to rub his madness on her…

* * * * *

In the girls' dormitory, Toni just finished taking a shower after practice. She was toweling her hair dry when an owl flew in and sat on the window and started hooting at her trying to catch some attention.

Curiously, she neared the bird and noticed a piece of rolled paper tied around its leg. The owl, which Toni couldn't recognize, voluntarily lifted its leg for her to untie the parchment. And when she did, the owl flew away as quick as possible.

Toni gave a small shriek when the revolt of feathers happened while she was still leaning towards the window. Then, she unrolled the paper with her name written on it and inside, it read:

_Stay away from him if you know what's good for you._

And nothing more. Not even a signature. Just a neat script of eleven words than ran straight across the small piece of parchment.

* * * * *

"What is this?" Toni demanded as she swung the door of the boys' room open, holding up the piece of parchment. She quickly dressed after reading the note and went straight for their dormitories having the strongest feeling on who sent it.

Remus and Peter looked up from their readings in surprise and saw that Toni just crashed into their dormitory – going mad.

Toni put down her hand and breathed deeply when Remus and Peter pointed towards Sirius' bed. Oh, well, Sirius was asleep – taking a nap before dinner.

Toni sat next to him, just in the position where he would see her once he opened his eyes. And oddly enough, Sirius – who wouldn't wake for any tectonic plate movements that would crush the whole building – felt someone was watching him. (Probably because dinner time was just in the corner so he wasn't really planning on dozing off to a deep sleep.)

Sirius stirred and recognized Toni's face. He smiled, as if he was dreaming, and said, "Hi…"

Remus cleared his throat – just a precaution to let Sirius know that he and Toni were not alone in the room. Good thing because Sirius probably wasn't aware of that either. He looked up and glanced at Remus' direction and saw Peter sitting there, too. Then, he looked back at Toni and realized that she wasn't looking pretty angelic – actually, she was looking very lethal.

Quickly, he sat up and rubbed his eyes, saying, "What's going on?"

Toni drew another deep breathe and then flashed the piece of paper so close to Sirius' face that his eyes crossed. "'Stay away from him if you know what's good for you'?!" Toni exclaimed, helping out Sirius as he uncrossed his eyes. "Biggest rubbish of a note I've received."

Sirius snatched the note from Toni's hand as she wasn't planning on getting it off his face. He flashed her a look of innocence and then straining his eyes, he tried to read the note himself with his clearing vision. "What's this? I'm guessing this is still about that Arithmancy dumb guy?"

"What's _that_?" Toni replied. "It's a note. From you, I'm assuming. Although I have no idea whose owl was that you used," she continued as Sirius got out of the bed.

"I did not send you any note," Sirius said with a snort. "I don't need to send you a note. Why do I have to send you a note when for the last twelve hours I've been telling you that I don't like that stupid Eric guy because—"

"You're jealous."

"No…!!!" Sirius groaned in protest. He paused to think of a much better rational answer. "Because – because Kiara says he's hands-on. Touch-y. You heard her." He paused again. "And how sure are you that this is even yours?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because it says Antoinette Turner at the back of it."

Sirius held up the note again and then read the other side of the parchment. "Your name's Antoinette?" Toni glared at him murderously. "I'm kidding," he quickly said. "Toni, this isn't even my handwriting. And why are you making such a big deal out of this?"

"Because you're being such a big baby over this." She paused. "Whatever." Then she turned around and got out of the room.

Sirius took a moment before he was able to absorb everything and every sense. "What?"

* * * * *

Several furniture was now floating in the air inside the Head Prefects Room – thanks to James Potter. He thought of rearranging the chairs and coffee table because Lily was driving him crazy.

It was nearly dinner time and yet, she still wasn't talking to him. And James Mr-Couldn't-Sit-Still Potter (as Lily called him), was going to go mad when he stayed in that chair until eternity. He tried telling her a story about everything he could think of; but Lily wouldn't as much as look at him. Sometimes, he would laugh loudly at his own joke and then would stop abruptly when he glanced that Lily was continuously reading her books.

But James didn't know that this time, he was starting to get Lily's attention. She would twitch when a squeaking noise resonated in the room – sometimes like nails driving through the surface of a chalkboard. She wondered what on earth James was up to, but wouldn't dare turn around to see.

James was transporting one of the couch and the coffee table in the air when all of a sudden, someone came barging in through the door.

"The impossible has happened!"

It was Sirius Black. And just like when James entered the room earlier, Lily's heart almost jumped out of her chest when Sirius came in yelling, combined with an also startled James who dropped the couch and the coffee table on the ground making a loud thump. Everyone in the room thought it created so much wind that even the hearth in the fireplace died (even the candles that Lily was using on the table was put out) – and they were left in the semi-darkness of the castle's shadows.

"What the—?!" Lily cried out, standing up and then turning to face who the hell that was. Somehow, Sirius coming in caused a sudden bizarre unbalance in the world.

"Well," Sirius muttered, talking to James' and Lily's silhouettes against the fading light coming in from the window, "do I make quite an entrance or what?"

Lily crossed her arms, ignoring the darkness for a while, and narrowed her eyes. "Sirius, what are you doing in here?" She paused. "On second thought… _how_ did _you_ get in here?"

Sirius smiled at James then looked at Lily. "Twinkletoes?"

Lily glared at James, knowing that it was him who told the password into the Head Prefects Room.

"I… I…" James stammered, "have… nothing to say."

"Nice redecorations you have going on here," Sirius said in a cheerful note, obviously not in the mood to watch a war between James and Lily. He walked past James and went straight to Lily. "Lily."

But Lily abruptly turned around and went back to her table. She pulled her wand from her pocket and with a wave, lit the candles up again. "Sirius, I'm studying. Which I was supposed to be doing before you kicked me out of the library."

James neared them, wondering why Sirius was suddenly being _girl_ friends with Lily.

"Hey, I did _not_!" Sirius yelled out defensively. "Well, anyway, you should be thinking of taking a break soon… it's around dinner time."

Lily sighed audibly and then looked at James and Sirius. When she was alone with them together in a darkening room where only a couple of candles were lit – they seemed to look like trolls in comparison to her stature. "Why am I stuck here with the two of you?" she said throwing her hands on her side. "I'm cursed," she muttered. "I am. I'm the most cursed person in this world. Or in any world."

"Wait a second," James moved forward waving a hand in the air in utter confusion. "What the heck is happening?"

Lily rolled her eyes at James. "What's _you're _problem?" she muttered as she walked to the hearth that James didn't bother to light up again.

"Well, at least thank you now she's talking to me again," James mumbled to Sirius who was left beside him.

Lily finally took notice of the room when she had lit the fireplace. In the simplest of words – everything was in disarray. She saw that even one of the armchairs was overturned. "What were you doing here?" she questioned James in a very incredulous tone.

James bit his lip and shrugged shyly. "Redecorating?" Then he pointed to Sirius. "_He's_ the one who barged in here and blew everything apart."

"Hey! That wasn't my fault," Sirius pouted. "You were the one who was 'redecorating'," he said, mocking James.

"Well, you're the one who gave him the password," Lily pointed back to James – completely ignoring Sirius' protest.

"Alright…" Sirius began again. He ought to have them remember that he was there with a purpose. "Let's not forget why I'm here," he said, standing between James and Lily.

"What do you want?" Lily asked. "Before you say anything… let me just tell you that you can't kick me out of the room this time."

James stepped forward and stood between Sirius and Lily. "What's going on, what's happening? Am I missing something?"

Sirius ignored James and placed himself in between James and Lily again. By this time, the gaps between the three of them were diminishing and Lily was on the losing side because she was just beside the fireplace. "We don't have to go into so much details right now," Sirius said, looking at Lily in the eye. "_I'm_ having a dilemma."

"No. _I'm_ having the dilemma," James insisted. Really, his only dilemma was that Lily wasn't talking to him. He moved again to stand in between Sirius and Lily but there was barely any room that Lily had to step backwards just to keep herself from being squashed.

"Alright then, _I'm_ going to dinner," Lily replied, mimicking the boys' tone.

"But Lily—" Sirius was about to step forward again when Lily pointed at him.

"Don't! Don't take another step unless you want to crush me like a bug." She stepped sideways in order to leave the room.

But James was quick and ran towards the door and barricaded it with himself.

"Oh! My! God!!!" Lily clutched her head as if she had to hold it in because any time now it was going to explode. "What do you two want from me?" And after taking a deep breath, she turned around and walked the other way. First she took one of the chairs at the table then continued walking towards the window.

James' eyes grew wide in anxiety then took a cautious step towards the other side of the room where Lily was. Oh, yes, she definitely _definitely_ was replaced by a raving lunatic. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Jump," Lily replied quite casually like it was an every day thing for her, as she placed the chair beside the window and stepped up on it. "Maybe I could fly. What do you know?"

"Are you crazy?!" James exclaimed. He quickly ran to her and grabbed her by the waist just as she put one foot on the ledge of the window. Then he carried her to one of the overturned armchairs and sat her safely.

"In how many ways can I answer yes to that?"

James bent down in front of her and asked in a concerned voice, "Okay, what just happened right there?"

Lily stared at James and then with a casual shrug, she said, "I dunno…"

Meanwhile, Sirius was now standing by the window, looking at the high jump down. He scratched his head – it was probably a four-storey jump. "Were you seriously going to jump out that window?" He was serious, as a matter of fact, when he asked that question.

"Of course not," Lily said flatly. "I'm not stupid."

"What did you do to her?" James was aching to blame somebody but him. Thus, he demanded of Sirius where the missing bolt in Lily's head was that night.

Sirius' face turned to a surprise shock like he had just been accused of killing someone.

"Well, she was fine a minute ago," James insisted.

"Oh yeah… well, from what I heard a while ago, she wasn't talking to you. See, so when I heard you talking outside while I was saying the password – you were actually talking to yourself! So, in conclusion," Sirius said, proud of his deduction of people's lunacy that night, "_you_ were the one who was losing his head a while ago and _smeared_ it all over Lily's precious sane head." He paused, staring at James' and Lily's open mouths. "You broke her, James."

"Oh give it up," Lily said, after shaking her head thinking that Sirius might be possessed or something. She stood up and sat at the table again, facing Sirius. "Alright then, what is it?" she demanded irately. When Sirius didn't speak, she asked again, "What is it? What is this dilemma you were talking about?"

Sirius slowly approached Lily. "Are you alright?" Then his expression changed as if realizing something. "Oh… is it… that… time of the month—?"

"Oh shut up!" Lily commanded. Clearly, she wouldn't want to be stuck with these two people alone again. She would go extremely mad!

"Since when do you share your problems with my girlfriend?" James asked, a little curious and a little hurt that he was being ignored in the conversation.

"You know, a lot of things can happen in a day," Lily replied.

Sirius grabbed his head tightly and looked at the two of them back and forth. "Is this how you two fight? It's quite confusing, I'm telling you. Maybe that's why James here goes mad every time you two have a row."

"Oh, I know," Lily began, smiling at Sirius. "Toni found out you were spying on her, right? And you're here because basically, she's on her way to exterminate you."

"What? Nuh-no." Sirius paused then in a low voice, said to Lily, "Hey, I thought that was between you and me?"

"And… Remus."

"So, a lot of things really can happen in a day," James interrupted again. He pulled a chair and sat beside Lily – both of them now facing Sirius as if he was being trialed. "Like meeting someone new, spying on someone, getting someone kicked out of the library, and consequently getting kicked out of the library…"

"You met someone new?"

"No."

"Or receiving _bloody _notes from anonymous owls!!!" Sirius finally blurted out, waving out the piece of parchment he was carrying around. He was planning to have a good conversation with Lily Evans. A short one. A very concise one. But he never imagined that this kind of complication existed. Maybe there was a maddening essence in the air – that everyone just suddenly sniffed and then a part of their brain disappeared… forever…

But luckily, that wasn't the case.

"That wasn't supposed to come out that way," Sirius said, looking up at the ceiling – a little embarrassed; as James and Lily looked at him with perplexed stares.

James stood and snatched the parchment from Sirius. "This note? _This_ is your dilemma?"

"Oh, you were actually paying attention. I'm so glad."

Lily read the note in James' hand. She sighed audibly and looked at Sirius with knitted brows. "I told you to just admit it. You're jealous." She seized the parchment and waved it around in front of Sirius saying, "Why do you have to resort to this childish stuff?"

"Have I mentioned 'from _anonymous_ owls'?"

Lily turned over the paper and read the back of the note. "Antoinette Turner… Who in the world addresses Toni as 'Antoinette Tuner'?"

"But that's the least of my problems now, is it? Toni's probably cursing that person right now for calling her _Antoinette_. The thing is, Toni walked out on an argument… without hitting me."

"That's _good_… right?"

"Not when it repeats a memory of me lying in the Hospital Wing while pleading for her to forgive me."

"Who's 'him'?" James suddenly interrupted. "'Stay away from him.' Who's 'him'?"

Sirius looked at him with disbelieving wide eyes. "I can't believe you're still there!"

"Oh… that guy again, huh?" Then, James took the note from Lily again and scrutinized it a little closer. "Don't you think that handwriting looks awfully familiar?" He glanced at Lily. "Slytherin scribble."

"Why are you looking at me like that?" It was Lily. She didn't really appreciate being reminded that once upon a cursed time, she fancied Lucius Malfoy. Aack!!!

She glared at James and Sirius who were smiling rather sheepishly at her; then, as if it was a day of déjà vous, another person came bursting in through the door screaming bloody murder.

"Lily! That Sirius Black is killing me!"

It was Toni. She went dumbstruck when she saw Sirius in there that her hands involuntarily placed themselves on her hips.

Lily, on the other hand, straightened up and tucked a few stray strands of hair at the back of her ears. When James and Sirius wouldn't stop staring at her accusingly… "Well, _you_ told your friends, too," she muttered to James with an eyebrow raised.

Sirius then advanced towards Toni and said in his most convincing, pleading tone, "I told you, I don't know anything about that letter."

"Well, I guess this isn't yours either," Toni answered waving yet another piece of parchment in her hand – much like the one she received earlier, "'I need you to trust me. This isn't who you think it is'? Well, that's just perfectly believable, Sirius."

Sirius took the note from Toni's hand and read it. He let out a loud groan of frustration and turned to James, flashing him the letter. "See? See what that git is doing to me? When did you get this?" he asked Toni.

"In the library. I was looking for Lily. And it wasn't a very nice experience bumping into Malfoy either."

"Why?" Sirius' tone suddenly turned awfully low. Somehow, he thought that Malfoy found out that he was the one who cast that spell on Snape earlier and tried to get even through Toni. But then, he realized… _Slytherins don't really care for people but themselves._

"I don't like his face," Toni said, her mouth curled one side. Then she quickly added disbelievingly, "Do you have to ask that? He's hateful."

"Oh," Sirius replied. "Well I was here the whole time. Beat that!" he declared, oh, ever so proudly knowing that Toni wouldn't find any reason to blame him for the letters now.

Toni sighed exasperatedly. "Alright, then," she said, crossing her arms. Then, without batting an eye, she told him, "You're coming with me tomorrow."

"To tutor that animated vainglorious hands-on pervert?!"

"You've put a lot of thought in that statement, haven't you?"

"I've had some time in my hands…" Sirius said slowly… stealing a glance at Lily – just in case she started yelling the incident at the library.

Fortunately, she didn't.

* * * * *

After much deliberation in the Head Prefects Room, it was decided (by Toni) that Sirius would be going with her to the tutorial session with Eric. And Sirius, of course, had no choice even after he had insisted for the hundredth time that he wasn't the one who sent the notes. But for now… it _was_ Sirius – for no one else would admit it. And Sirius let that be for the time being because his stomach started grumbling for food.

Thus, they all resolved that dinner would be much appreciated.

As the four of them entered the Great Hall, everyone was engrossed in their usual buzzing – which would have been easily ignored if they weren't overhearing something weird.

"I was in the Common Room. We were playing Wizards' Chess."

"Maybe it was a spell gone badly."

"One of the Slytherins said that it was an omen of some sorts."

"Slytherin? And you believed him? You know everything they say is rubbish."

"So," Lily began as she sat at the Gryffindor table; she looked at Kiara and asked, "why does it seem like everyone's buzzing about an _omen_?"

"What do you mean?" Kiara replied a little confused. She looked at Lily curiously as if she should've known what was going on. "So, where were you when the lights went out?"

"The lights went out?"

"You mean…" Kiara paused waiting for some kind of punch line of a joke. "_Where_ were you? In an alternate universe?"

"I was in the library," Toni replied. Well, apparently, she had some knowledge on what was happening.

"I'm lost," Sirius complained. He had been trying to figure people out since the many incidents in the Head Prefects Room. He was kinda tired… and hungry. "What exactly are we talking about here?"

"You don't know?" Kiara muttered again, with her brows knitted in utter perplexity. "All the lights went out a while ago. The fireplaces, the torches in the hallways… even the candles." She paused… maybe the light guiding their minds also went out a while ago and she thought of waiting for it to dawn on her friends again. But when all she received was a blank stare from James, Sirius and Lily, she demanded, "Where in the world were you?"

James cleared his throat. Where was he when all the lights went out? "I guess… I guess we were in the Head Prefects Room."

Kiara narrowed her eyes. "All three of you?" she said slowly. "And you didn't notice that 'Hey, why is it so suddenly dark in here?'"

"Well… I had an armchair and a table in the air. Then Sirius showed up with such… utter _distraction_ personified. When I lost control I thought the wind from the impact when they fell… you know… blew out the fire."

Kiara straightened in her seat as if something James said just didn't make quite sense. Well, come to think of it, it really didn't make much, actually. "What were you doing floating armchairs?" she dared even ask but shook her head just as fast suggesting for James not to answer her. "Has it ever occurred to you to realize that the hearth in the fireplace doesn't die unless you kill it with magic or unless there's no one around?"

James gave and expression of 'Hmm… you've got a point' but didn't really say something more for it was Lily who said what he was thinking. "What did Dumbledore say?"

Kiara shook her head. "He's not here yet. But the most popular theory so far is that some students were studying for Charms or… something… and well… just a spell gone out of control."

"Well, there's no problem, then," Sirius declared.

But just as he said that, Peter came into the Great Hall – walking and running at the same time. He would fly if only he could. He went straight for James and Sirius who were staring at him curiously since he was probably looking like a wheezing mouse. Almost out of breath, he stopped and gazed at James and Sirius – _only_ at James and Sirius. His eyes were apparent with fear. "J-James. S-S-Sirius," he said, with his voice low so that only the two could hear him. "C-can I-uh-t-talk? T-to you? F-for a s-s-second," he continued, pulling their robes.

Surprisingly, Sirius rolled his eyes and sniggered. "Oh, Peter. It wasn't the end of the world. It was just a bunch of students who were a little slow in Charms." Then, he turned to Toni and muttered, "Why couldn't it be Arithmancy? At least that bloody Eric would have a support group or something."

But Peter only shook his head and tugged at James' and Sirius' robes harder. "P-please…"

"We'll be right back," James told the others at the table, smiling. He tried not to show it but he sensed that Peter wasn't thinking about the end of the world. So, he stood up and pulled Sirius by his robe's collar with him.

"Hey," Sirius protested. "Dinner? It's coming in a few minutes. I'm hungry!"

But James ignored him and dragged Sirius until he voluntarily came.

James waited until they were out of the Great Hall. "What's going on, Wormtail?"

"I-it's R-Remus…"

__

~*~*~*~

oblivion is falling down... -- hale, "the day you said goodnight"

There you go… so, you see, it's rather long. That's why it has managed to drain me… but still, I liked writing so I hope you liked reading it.

Don't forget to leave a review…!!!


	5. Lycan In The Afternoon

__

YOU KNOW, IT'S ACTUALLY A WONDER WHY MCGONAGALL NEVER PUT STUDENTS TO CLEAN UP ALL OF THIS FOR DETENTION. IT'LL BE THE ULTIMATE TORTURE OF THE SENSES.

Chapter Four. Clearly, I'm uploading so slowly. I really need to get my act together. It's just this job I have is taking up all of my time – I don't even have time to comb my hair sometimes… I'm such a dork. Anyway, I'm in a good mood. I'll tell you why… I just found out that one or more of my original pieces are going to be published! Yay! So, watch out for that and I'll tell you more about it later on…

Anyway, enough rambling as I'm sure I'm starting to bore you…

But anyway, here goes chapter four. Hope you enjoy reading and kindly leave a review afterwards.

So, since Book 6 has been released and obviously I've started Oblivious before Book 5 and then started Curtain Calls right where Oblivious finished, there would be inconsistencies with the present canon. But, anyway, if you're a sport about it… you'll realize it's fanfiction, right? And by the way, JK Rowling – only the richest author in the magical land! – she's the one who owns Harry Potter. Just borrowing some characters for the story.

everybody knows that something's wrong... but nobody knows what's going on... -- phantom planet, "lonely day"

~*~*~*~

**CHAPTER FOUR: Lycan in the Afternoon**

"He's in there," Peter squeaked as he pointed at the bathroom, which was locked by a latch on the outside. Clearly, Peter just tried to incarcerate Remus in the toilet.

Sirius approached the door slowly as if something would come leaping out of it if he made any sudden movements. Curiously, Remus wasn't able to get himself out of a _latched_ door. "You locked him in the bathroom?"

"And what do you suppose I should've done? Lead him out into the common room?"

Sirius shrugged. Good point.

"Shshsh…" James waved them off as he listened for any sign of movement behind the door. He knocked, hoping to stir anything conscious inside the bathroom to make any kind of sound. "Remus?" he called, when nothing happened.

"What happened?" Sirius asked Peter while James was still listening at the door.

"I don't know! One minute he was sitting silently. The next minute he was growling at me."

Sirius shook his head. What? "That's not possible."

"Well, that's easy for you to say!" Peter yelled not really because Sirius wasn't taking him… seriously. But because the tension building inside him was going to blow him up in any minute if he wouldn't let it out.

"Oh, put a sock in it, you two!" James called; apparently sure that Remus was already unconscious inside the bathroom. He unlocked the door and opened it slowly. Unable to realize that he was holding his breath in, he stuck his head in first to take a peek – which, come to think of it, wasn't a very good idea. It was like sticking your face first inside a snake pit, really.

He was able to exhale when he saw Remus lying passed out on the ground; and opened the door widely to let Sirius and Peter in.

The room was in disarray. It looked like a scared cat came in and jumped from one place to another – throwing everything out of its place. But in this case, it most probably was a scared dog – actually, most likely a humungous monstrously-fanged hungry dog.

"Look," Sirius said, pointing at Remus' fingers. Some of his nails had dried blood and splinters in them as if they scratched a surface repeatedly so hard out of desperation.

Sirius walked to the door and turned it to show the inside of the bathroom door full of claw scratches.

"What are we going to do?" came Peter's diminishing voice. He almost sounded like he was running out of air.

"Get the Invisibility Cloak."

* * * * *

In a separate room in the Hospital Wing, Remus lay in the bed that was especially meant for him during those monthly transformations he had under the full moon. But as everyone in that room knew… there was nowhere near a full moon that night.

As Madam Prenny treated the bruises on Remus, James was restlessly walking in circles, Sirius was staring out the window beside Remus' bed, and Peter was curled up in a chair – waiting for the impending end of the world, as he believed.

Suddenly, a familiar red head girl came barging in through the door with her hands on her hips. "And I suppose you had absolutely no plan of telling me about this, did you?" she demanded of James the second she caught sight of him – quite surprised – as she ignored the similar astonished looks the others were giving her.

James almost tripped over himself as soon as he saw Lily. It took him five whole seconds in order to realize what was happening. "How'd—?"

How did she know what happened? Well, not that she really knew… she just wanted to let be known to everyone that she knew something happened. But just then, Dumbledore entered right after her.

"Professor."

"Headmaster," Madam Prenny began, collecting her healing tools. She walked towards Dumbledore still carrying her kit and continued, "he experienced more cuts and bruises than usual. He's already resting. I'll have to attend to another patient." Then Dumbledore nodded his permission for the school nurse to leave the room.

"Professor, is there something happening that we don't know about?" James started as soon as the nurse closed the door behind her. "Because this—" he said, pointing at Remus "—is not possible. There's no full moon for another two weeks. And it wasn't even night time."

"What?" Lily asked with knitted brows. "Are you saying that Remus—?"

"A full blown werewolf," Peter interrupted not really appreciating that the anxiety he had been trying to subside for the last hour was starting to come back to him. "Almost had me for dinner! If I hadn't transformed into a rat and lured him into the bathroom, I would've been—" he swallowed, not being able to finish his sentence and just squeaked and covered his face at the idea that he would've been digesting in Remus' stomach right now if he…

Lily gasped with a hand on her mouth. She glanced worriedly at Remus who was still sleeping quite peacefully now. "But that's impossi—!" she trailed off and looked at Dumbledore who was standing quietly by the door waiting for all of them to calm down.

Dumbledore gazed at them from behind his glasses, as if thinking the best words to say what was in his mind. He motioned towards Remus and studied him before he looked up at the four anxious teenagers waiting. "It was a catalyst. The spell was a catalyst – the spell that was perhaps cast by some silly students who thought it would be nice experimenting with charms like these."

"Every witch and wizard has magical abilities – abilities that in time are honed through schooling and polished in practice. But some magic are unique per chance or per destiny. Some of us carry abilities and qualities that are, most of the time, yet to be developed or known. While some… are meant to be hindered…" he said, glancing at Remus.

"What does that mean?" James asked a little impatient. Maybe he had no time trying to decode Dumbledore's riddles right now. He wanted straight answers.

Yet Dumbledore only took a deep breath and looked at James on top of his crescent-shaped spectacles. "Expect magic, Mr. Potter," he answered for indeed, more magic was bound their midst.

He stood there for another second, looking concerned at Remus. But actually, it seemed that he was waiting for something – something that any one of them would say back to him. But when he was insistently greeted with silence, he nodded his head to each of them and smiled goodbye before he went out the door.

"Uhhmmm…" Sirius cleared his throat. He appeared to have been very agitated since he saw Remus in the dormitories. He cleared his throat again and then said, "I'm going to get a glass of water," and then headed out.

* * * * *

"Professor Dumbledore! Professor Dumbledore!" Sirius' voice resonated in the hallways as he ran after the Headmaster.

Professor Dumbledore slowed down his pacing and waited for Sirius to catch up with him. "Yes, Mr. Black? What's the hurry?"

"Does this have to do with anything?" Sirius demanded at once. It almost seemed that he wasn't the playful and carefree Sirius he had always been. Clearly, what happened to Remus was stirring something in him like a restless ghost.

Dumbledore paused just before the stairway down then turned to Sirius and searched his eyes. "Is there something you wish to tell me… Sirius?"

"Uh—" Sirius suddenly hesitated and avoided Dumbledore's gaze. Somehow, it seemed like a pull of more gravity emptied his mind to prevent him from saying anything. "Nothing," he replied shaking his head.

Oddly, Dumbledore only smiled and with always a hint in his voice, said, "Then I will be in my office."

* * * * *

"Wait a second! You're not leaving me here!" Peter squealed almost like a girl when James called on Lily to come back to the Gryffindor Tower with him.

"Oh, come on now," James teased him. "There's a bathroom just right there," he said pointing at the corner of the room.

Peter's eyes narrowed. "Not funny," he said as he jumped from his armchair and almost ran to the door.

James sighed audibly and looked at Remus then back at Peter. "Fine. I think he's going to be okay. Besides, Madam Prenny's going to kick us out of here any minute now anyway."

"Well good," Peter said, almost skipping out of the room ahead of them afraid that James would dare lock him in there with Remus.

James rolled his eyes at the door and went back to Lily who had been sitting beside Remus. "Lils, come on," he said, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Lily went with James out of the room and into the part of the Hospital Wing that all Hogwarts students actually knew. Then, as they were passing through the ward, she quickly spotted Adrian sitting on one of the beds.

Adrian was rubbing his temple with both hands like he was having a massive headache while he waited for the school nurse to finish pouring some probably ghastly tasting medicine into a drinking glass. When he looked up, he saw Lily (and most likely James too) and flashed an apparently forced smile.

Lily waved and smiled back.

Although James was bothered by the thought of his best friend turning into a killer werewolf amidst a sunny afternoon, this exchange of greetings did not escape him. And also because of the same stirring thoughts, he didn't mind it at all – considering that he was still after that boy the redhead girl (who was Lily by the way – as James concluded) was with that afternoon. But then again, this incident would certainly come back to him in the most crucial of times.

* * * * *

"A catalyst?" Toni reiterated with furrowed eyebrows. She threw the book she was reading to the foot of her bed and tucked herself under her blankets. "What use is that really?" she wondered while lying on her back with her arms under her head.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room was Kiara sitting attentively on her own bed – looking at Lily with much curiosity. "So, did that… catalyst thing had something to do with Remus?"

"Kiara!" Toni exclaimed, rolling her eyes, before Lily could even answer. "What in the world kind of magical ability is that?"

Kiara smirked at her. "I was just asking," she said, rolling her eyes then she turned to Lily with that pensive stare. "So… is he… like… one of those people who gets a cold for one week when exposed to a light breeze? Cause, you know, the wind came with the spell."

Lily smiled in spite of her worries. "Oh come one. Give him a break. He's just a bit off lately."

"Lately? He's like always sick, isn't he?" Kiara insisted.

Well, apparently, that always came with the fact when someone involuntarily turns into a beast once a month. And it would always be a wonder to everyone else why someone would be so sickly especially when they don't know the truth.

Yes, Lily had kept Remus' secret from her friends. It probably was the biggest lie – or omission of truth, for that matter – that she had to do to her best friends. But then again, it wasn't her secret to reveal either…

"But anyway," Kiara continued, shaking her head implying to forget what she just said. "I was thinking… what happened to you during that time?"

"Nothing," came Lily's and Toni's replies at the same time. Then Toni leaned on her arm and turned to Kiara. "Why?" she asked. "What happened to you? Did something happen to you?"

"Umm…" Kiara started reluctantly. "Professor Dumbledore said that it doesn't necessarily mean that you're aware of those abilities, right? Well…" her voice trailed then she stood up from her bed and started shaking her arms trying to relieve herself of apparent tension. "I'm just saying… What if you suddenly turned into a flying moose or something and you didn't know that you _could_ turn into a flying moose before?"

A moment of silence had fallen all over the room as both Lily and Toni stared at her in utter confusion.

Lily chuckled. "You turned into a flying moose?"

Kiara stopped and breathed in about to say something to obviously object to that. But Toni was faster and said out loud, "With antlers? Did you have wings?"

Kiara let out a frustrated sigh and sneered at her. "No," she replied with a roll of her eyes. "I didn't turn into a flying moose—"

"Vince turned into a flying moose then!"

"I am asking a serious question here, people!"

Toni rolled her eyes but with a grin plastered on her face. Sometimes, Kiara's serious questions could sound _really_ ridiculous to be taken seriously. Yet, Lily didn't seem to mind all the ridiculousness. Kiara had always been that way. Maybe, she _was_ serious.

Lily sighed as Kiara looked at her almost desperately. "I think…" she began, not really believing that she was carrying on with this foolish conversation. "…if you suddenly turned into a flying… animal… during that time… it would be the effect of the spell. Dumbledore said that these abilities are, most of the time, yet to be developed or known."

"Yeah," Toni spoke up again. "But that would mean that Kiara could fly, wouldn't it?" This made Lily look at her and then at Kiara.

"You can fly?"

Kiara's eyes grew wide open. "Do I look like an owl?"

"Well now you kind of do," Toni responded with a teasing smile. "Kiara, where is this going?"

Kiara sighed audibly and started towards her bed. "Nowhere really." Then, with another deep breath, she turned around and rushed beside Lily. "Did James turn into a stag?"

"A what?"

"You know… he's an Animagus."

"Well then Sirius must've turned into an oversized dog, then," Toni cut in.

Lily stopped for a moment as if recalling what happened during that afternoon in the Head Prefects Room. Actually, with everything that had occurred during the day… it seemed to have happened several years ago. "Uh… no. Because they're not actually hindering that. And being an Animagus is something learned, not innate."

"Oh," Kiara muttered in contentment. "So, it's safe to say that Peter didn't turn into a rat, right? I mean, I haven't really seen Peter turn into a rat and I don't think I want to…" she trailed off and asked _the_ question. "What about Remus?"

"Uh…" Lily stirred in her bed, suddenly feeling quite uncomfortable. "I – I – um – don't… think—" she looked down and started playing with the edge of her blanket "—he's an… Animagus." She looked at Kiara, hoping against hope that she would stop her questions right there.

And fortunately… "Yeah, I guess so. I mean it seems to me that being an Animagus takes a lot of energy… look at James and Sirius… Remus might faint before he actually could transform…"

* * * * *

Lily's eyes snapped open while still feeling her heart throbbing right through her chest. She had been dreaming again. That same dream that had been haunting her lately. But this time, it was more vivid that she could still see the face of the stranger that always woke her up with fear. For a minute she lay still in her bed feeling as if the man in her dreams would materialize in front of her if she made even one faint of a sound. She closed her eyes again chiding herself that it was just a dream… and after what seemed like an eternity, she finally moved her cramping legs and sat up on her bed. Everything seemed to be clearing now. In the darkness, she could see her roommates' sleeping figures under their blankets as the chilly winds playfully blew the drapes hanging from the window.

It was one in the morning. Fairly short sleep for a frightful dream that seemed to always last for… forever. She wanted more than anything to go back to bed and enjoy the rest of the night slumbering. But she wouldn't want to meet with the eyes staring at her with so much wickedness just right then. So she decided to put on her robes and step down into the common room for a while.

It wasn't actually against the new-found school rules for students to hang out in their common rooms beyond curfew. After all, the rule said they should be in their _Houses_ not in their rooms. As Lily slowly went down the stairs, she could hear a faint sound coming from the common room. It sounded like music playing. Strings. When she reached the final step, she peeked and saw someone sitting in front of the hearth quietly fiddling with his guitar. Without hesitation, she walked towards the boy as she felt every strum begin to relax her troubled mind.

She was only halfway towards the fireplace when the music stopped.

"Evans…" that familiar calm, soothing voice muttered without even turning to look at her.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Lily said, snapping out of her recent trance. "I didn't mean to— How'd you know it was me?"

Adrian smiled as Lily sat beside him with a curious expression. "Wild guess," he said.

Lily smiled back although she couldn't help raising an eyebrow of mock suspicion. "Why… are you playing guitar in the middle of the night?"

Adrian sat still for a moment and then strummed his guitar once and said, "Good question."

"Aren't you—?"

"Supposed to be asleep?" Adrian cut in with another pluck of his guitar. Then started playing softly. "Can't sleep… You? Bad dream?"

"Uh… yeah…" Lily answered with knitted brows. It almost seemed like Adrian could read her mind. Then she remembered something that happened that afternoon. "Hey… what were you doing in the Hospital a while ago?"

Adrian opened his mouth to answer but then said, "You know I should ask you the same thing. Head aches?"

"No," Lily shook her head. "I – I was just—"

"Don't worry. You don't have to tell me."

Lily listened to him start playing a familiar song. Oddly enough, it was a Muggle song. "So… where exactly did you learn to play the guitar? Aren't you a…" she paused "…born and bred wizard?"

Another one of those smiles flashed across Adrian's face. "I reckon you mean a Pureblood?" Lily nodded. "Well, Muggles interest me." He paused and looked at her sleepy face. "Tell you what," he offered, "give me a song that will help you sleep and I'll play for you until you fall asleep."

Lily chuckled. "Well, thanks but I don't think I want to be seen down here in my pajamas come morning."

"That's alright," Adrian said. Then he stood up and sat in one of the armchairs. "I'll take this chair. And you take the couch over there," he said, pointing at the couch across the room from him. "I promise to wake you up before any Gryffindors can see their Headgirl in pajamas."

Lily smiled. She stood up and started walking towards the couch. She wasn't really planning on sleeping in the common room. But she decided to take on Adrian's offer to play a song for her to relax. "Alright, I'll sit here and listen… but I'm not sleeping."

"Suit yourself, Headgirl." And he made himself comfortable in the chair as Lily made herself snug at one corner of the couch. "So what d'you wanna hear?"

Lily closed her eyes saying, "Anything," and heard Adrian start strumming his guitar.

This would be a much nicer dream. No icy stares coming from a dark figure she had only met in her sleep. No green lights triggered by magic. Just the pacifying sounds of melody.

Adrian played one song after another without exchanging any words with the Headgirl… Both of them sat in soft silence with only the guitar strings playing in the background. After several songs, Adrian paused when Lily stirred in her place.

Lily yawned and then smiled. "That will do," she said, standing up from the couch. "Goodnight." She was nowhere taking her second step when the portrait hole suddenly swung open and in less than a second – before she even could turn her eyes towards that direction – she knew who was at the door.

James, Sirius, and Peter came in… and were quite surprised to see people in the common room. Then, James recognized them as Lily and Adrian. Lily swore that James had a different kind of surprised expression that he quickly hid.

"Lily!" came that greeting from one and only James Potter.

Lily put her hands on her hips. "James… wandering about the castle again…"

But before James could speak, Sirius yawned loudly at the back. "My, I'm going to sleep," he said between fake yawns and then hurried to the stairs up the dormitories.

"Wait for me," Peter squeaked just behind as he ran after his friend.

James sighed audibly after watching them retreat from Lily Evans. "Look," he started turning back to her, "we were not out turning Malfoy into a ferret."

Lily opened her mouth to speak but someone else in the room cleared his throat. "Uhmm. I should be going too," said Adrian, pointing towards the stairs.

"Alright, goodnight," Lily replied.

"Look," Adrian turned around, hesitating a little, "about that… thing… I asked you… Maybe it's not a good idea—"

"Don't be silly," Lily said waving him off. "I've got it under control."

Adrian smiled. "Alright," he said and acknowledged James before carrying on up the boys' dormitories.

"Well, well, well," James started when he was sure that Adrian was already out of earshot. "Suddenly you have a new best friend. What's up with that?"

"Nothing's up with that. You're changing the subject. Where were you?"

"And then you changed it back. So, technically, you were the one who changed the subject last."

Lily narrowed her eyes. _It's almost two in the bloody morning!_ "Oh, you don't pick a time do you?"

James smirked and spread his arms. "I'm open twenty four seven. Hit me."

And thus, Lily hit him in the arm. Probably because it was two in the morning and cold that was why it took a while before any feelings could sink in. But after a second or two… "Oouu…ch…" James complained when his nerves finally reacted. "Why do women have to _always_ hit?"

"You just said to hit you."

"That's not what I meant."

"It's past midnight. I'm not open for interpretations of what anyone says tonight. I'm going back to sleep," Lily muttered as she turned around from James.

"So… by the way, then there's not any chance you could interpret what just happened a while ago with that… 'about that… thing… I asked you…'"

"It's private and confidential," Lily answered not turning back to look at him.

"Fine. Then I'm not telling where we were."

"I'll find out tomorrow, I'm sure."

"Ha ha! No you won't," James declared taunting Lily to look at him but she didn't even stop in her tracks. "I guess," he muttered to himself – vividly aware of Lily's complete ignorance of him – before he, himself, went back to his room.

* * * * *

It was just after sunrise. Lily had been back in bed for probably only three hours… when another one of those constant disturbances decided to come about.

This time, it was for Toni.

She was woken up by the maddening twitter of an owl that had made itself quite comfortable on her bed… more accurately – beside her face. _Who sends a bloody owl in this time of the day?!_ She opened her eyes and saw the blurry figure of a little barn owl – probably one of those owned by the school – carrying a piece of paper tied on its leg. Without bothering to wait for her vision to clear up, she blindly grasped the owl's leg. "Well, I'm sorry. I'm supposed to be asleep, you know," she muttered when the owl gave a begrudged hoot after she carelessly pulled the paper tied around its leg.

She went back to her comfortable position, holding the paper in her hand – thinking whether to read it or not. Then, opening one eye, she struggled to read what was written…

"Unbelievable," she grumbled in her pillow before she pushed herself up, grabbed her robes and quickly went out the door.

* * * * *

"Tell me again," James began with his eyes half-closed. He knew he was conscious and walking but he had forgotten all about why. "Why are we climbing the never ending stairs up to—" he paused. Where were these stairs leading up to anyhow? "Where are we going?"

"The Owlery," a very awake Sirius replied, as he led the way up to the school's owlery.

"Oh, yeah," James raised his eyebrows in realization and then paused again before asking, "Tell me why again?"

Sirius sighed audibly. He gazed out the school grounds looking like he was trying to catch some kind of owl… _any_ owl for that matter so that he could eat it for breakfast. "Where were you this morning?"

"I was asleep!" James replied with eyes that were begging to keep closed. "And then this shadow – person – woman came barging in. Toni!" he exclaimed with realization. "Cause she's the only one so far who could get you up at six in the bloody morning marching up the stairways to" he paused again before continuing; he needed some major brain processing "the Owlery. But tell me again… _why_ are we going up there?" he asked again and realized that they were actually already in the owlery.

James snorted like he just inhaled some ghastly stench. He then turned and looked around with his nose scrunched up as if that would filter any anomalous smells emanating from virtually all over the place. "Apparently, it has been a long time since I've been here. I forgot how this place smelled like owl… droppings… You know, it's actually a wonder why McGonagall never put students to clean up all of this for detention. It'll be the ultimate torture of the senses— Achoo!"

"I'm going to find that bloody bird that keeps sending Toni those notes," Sirius answered a question that had been quite lost with all of James' senseless blabbering.

"Women…" James muttered under his breath, his eyes staring at the distance. "You see," he began – an apparently different conversation but, no matter, because he wasn't aware of himself, "it was better back then. I _could_ tell if we were having a fight. But now, everything is just a blur."

"What?" Sirius turned to him, confused. "We're not having a fight."

James woke up from his trance and glared at Sirius. "Not _you_ and I, you idiot. Me and Lily."

"Arguing again? Last night? Was it about that bloke she was with? Sawyer?"

"No…" James answered quickly. And then paused for a while… thinking. "You see, _that's_ what I can't figure out! I don't know! Hey, I bet he's the one with Lily yesterday."

Sirius looked at James and scratched his nose. He had been looking around the owlery for fifteen minutes and all he could sense was the smell of owl droppings. "Talk about paranoid. Why don't you just waste that energy on pissing her off? That way, you'd be able to tell what's up with her."

"You're the one to talk – using Omnioculars to spy on his girlfriend. Very mature."

Sirius turned around and stared at James. Then he walked over and sniffed him as if the stench was coming from somewhere within the vicinity of James Potter. While James tried to avoid Sirius' sudden peculiar behavior.

"You're the one who stinks of wretched paranoia," Sirius declared circling James, who was starting to get dizzy from what he was doing. "Spying on Lily, James? I thought you were doing your ultra secret Quiddtich practice yesterday, huh? The one even your best friend for seven years couldn't watch."

James snorted. He was about to deny everything that Sirius just said but all he could come up was a smirk and a, "Sod off."

"I'm telling you," Sirius began again, his hands on his chest. "Don't give Toni a Beater's club. You might regret it if she comes after you on Lily's request after those _absolutely_ bizarre fights you always tend to start without you knowing—"

"Look!" James exclaimed all of a sudden, pointing at a random direction. "That's the owl!"

Even before the last syllable escaped James' mouth, Sirius turned around to the direction his friend was pointing so fast, he probably could snap his neck and drop dead at that time. He squinted and searched the sky for some sign of the owl… but he was a bit distracted when he heard a lunatic laughing hysterically behind him – James.

"You don't even know what the owl is supposed to look like…" James spoke in between laughs that his eyes were barely visible. He paused and then continued saying, "I mean… _owls_. Now I remember why I was asking _why_ we were going up here."

Well, that sounded just about right. All Sirius knew was that the birds were probably school owls… but he didn't actually realize – up until he was in the Owlery looking for something he couldn't seem to find – that the sender writing Toni was using different owls each time.

Sirius ran a hand on his face realizing how pointless it was standing there. And in his frustration, grabbed his hair and messed it all up. He badly wanted to go back to sleep. He was about to answer back James when both of them heard footsteps approaching the owlery. They both looked at the entrance to see who it was and unexpectedly… of all places they could meet…

Regulus came into view. And Sirius' face suddenly turned grim like he just ate a really bad pumpkin pie.

__

~*~*~*~

oh, i'm sorry... you did not wanna see... acting like i did when you betrayed me... -- lene marlin, "so i see"

Don't forget to leave a review…!!!


	6. Oh… Sugar!

__

SUGAR… OH HONEY HONEY…

I never thought I'd get this chapter out of my head. I don't like the fact that it's been two years and it's unfinished! I like a finished story, even if it's crappy… that's why I don't leave the theater no matter how appalling the story has become. Having less questions in my head is preferable.

Anyway… you know the deal: JK Rowling owns everything you recognize and the rest… well, they're mine.  
  


nobody said it was easy... no one ever said it would be this hard... -- coldplay, "the scientist"

~*~*~*~

**CHAPTER FIVE: Oh… Sugar!**

"Sirius…" Regulus muttered in a typical Slytherin drawl. Yet, he looked as surprised as older brother; and there wasn't a trace of arrogance on his face. He simply didn't expect Sirius to be there. After all, they might be attending the same school, eating in the same Hall… but they weren't exactly treating each other as family anymore. And meeting and greeting wasn't really part of their routine.

Sirius clenched his teeth. After all the efforts he put in avoiding his brother… a moment together with him – of all places – in a smelly, dank room wasn't really on top of his priorities. "I suppose you wouldn't want to be breathing the same air as I do," he muttered through gritted teeth; his eyes glaring in an almost unfamiliar intensity. "I've been mingling with Muggleborns and the stench might sting your sensitive lungs."

James placed a restraining hand on his friend's shoulder. He wanted nothing more than to see Regulus – and the rest of those greasy Slytherins – being dragged down into the bottom of the lake by the Giant Squid; however, it would be much more satisfying if he had the blessing of Dumbledore to do that. He then looked at Regulus as if saying not to make any trouble.

But Regulus was remotely interested in an argument. It was clear that he wanted none of this. James saw no anger or hatred in him. Yet, something there in his eyes… there was something there that James couldn't quite point out.

"You don't understand, said the younger Black."

Sirius shook his head and gave a mirthless chuckle. "I thought I made that clear when I lugged all my things out of that house and never came back to that hole."

Regulus didn't blink. He looked his brother straight in the eyes and said, "I'm doing what I should be doing." He took a step forward; and then stopped when Sirius straightened up to his full height. "You will thank me later," he spoke without emotion but as if he was stating a fact.

"For what? Being a narrow-minded prejudiced –" Sirius stopped himself. This conversation was of no use. He could pull out pointless talks with any other person just for the heck of it – because he was Sirius and he was insane like that. But this, a fruitless discussion with his brother was only stupid the most. He sighed and dropped his hands to his sides, saying, "Bloody hell, I'm getting out of here," and darted out of the Owlery.

* * * * *

Sirius came marching down into the grounds as his best friend followed a few paces behind him. He was breathing deeply – completely frustrated. Walking blindly, not caring where his feet were leading him, he just wanted to get away from that blasted owlery as far as possible.

"Sirius, let it go…" James said in a comforting groan as Sirius violently kicked a lone pebble out of the way.

Sirius stopped on his tracks and James saw his shoulders come up and down, indicating one deep breath. He then put his hands behind his head and continued walking until he found a stone seat under one of the many trees populating the school grounds.

A strong silence hung in the air. James wouldn't even joke about it. Maybe if it was Malfoy up there – then he could joke about it. But it wasn't. It was Regulus – Sirius' estranged brother – or the other way around; for it was Sirius who separated himself from his entire family.

"I know. I did," Sirius cut in through the quiet. "Well I thought I did. But I know you get that it's not actually easy to understand when your whole family is against you. Especially when they're against you for such crooked reasons."

James cleared his throat. "You do know that it's you who's really against them? And good for you, too," he said, stating a matter of fact because as a matter of fact, the Black family beliefs (starting foremost with Purebloods being better than any other wizards and all Muggles) were not actually making any rationale in Sirius' books. And by the time they were in their fifth years, Sirius had packed his belongings which were not tainted with any Black family crest; and lived with the Potters.

"I knew it." It was Remus, emerging from the direction of the lake. His friends turned to look at him curiously. They were flashing perplexed expressions that he turned behind him thinking if he was actually the one they were staring at. "Hell just froze over," he said as he turned back at James and Sirius.

"Mooney!" Sirius suddenly stood up, leaving his crappy mood at the stone seat. "You're supposed to be in the Hospital Wing making sure you're still human!"

Remus smirked. "I'm fine. It's seeing you here actually standing at half past six in the morning that's creeping me out." He paused and then smiled teasingly. "Are _you_ still human?"

"It's Regulus, my brain-washed brother," said Sirius, as his eyes flinched saying the word 'brother'. "Can't figure them out still. Supposed to be blood related. Ha!" He kicked another pebble that was innocently resting just beside his foot and almost hit Remus.

In spite of it, Remus chuckled as he watched the stone barely hitting him. "I thought you've got very well acquainted and used to Mrs. Potter's cooking – even if you're supposed to have your own place now." He smiled, waiting for Sirius' protests – because Sirius had moved out of the Potters last year and got a place of his own. But he wouldn't ever mind when James' mother Apparated at his house to bring in home-cooked meals.

And Sirius – being Sirius – only flashed a mischievous look and stuck his tongue out like a little boy. "What are you doing out of the hospital?"

"I said I'm fine now. The school nurse let me out."

In a second, Sirius grabbed Remus by the shoulders and opened the lids of his friend's eyes to the full extent with his hands – that Remus had to wrestle away from him and his weirdness. "Yep. You're good," Sirius said, patting Remus hard on the shoulder. Then… his eyes strayed to something that Remus was holding and in hysterics, said, "Don't tell me you were out for a morning stroll with that notebook?!" as he pointed at the notebook in Remus' hand like an unwanted plague.

Remus shook his head and rolled his eyes. "It's a sketch pad," he said, flashing the notebook up in Sirius' face. "And I'm carrying this just in case."

"Just in case what? Just in case you suddenly have the opportunity of returning that to its rightful owner?" Sirius bellowed – apparently back to his insane self.

"Shut up."

"You have an uncanny way of recovering, haven't you?" James commented with furrowed brows – a smile playing across his lips.

Sirius shrugged. "Yeah… but I still don't know who's sending those letters to Toni," he said. And he started to stroll his way back to the castle as he muttered, "Just have to thank her lucky stars that they're not bloodied notes."

Remus looked at James with perplexity written all over his face. "_Bloodied_ notes?" he mouthed.

But James just shrugged as he looked on at his best friend walking back to the castle. Because, he, himself didn't know what it was about but let it pass since Sirius was naturally morbid when angry. He turned back to Remus and was about to say something when out of nowhere, Kiara came walking towards them.

"Mornin' Kiara," James greeted with a wave as she past them. But she only half-a-glanced their way and smiled involuntarily, which was not entirely herself. "Hey," she said without even slowing down. But then a few feet past, she stopped.

Turned around.

And made a bee-line towards James. "James." Her tone sounded like she was about to ask him something but half-way through, she shook her head and muttered, "No. Not you," and made her direction back to the castle.

James and Remus looked at each other – utterly confused. "Well, people are definitely up. And they're weird."

* * * * *

His shoes squeaked loudly onto the corridor walls as James suddenly stopped into a screeching halt. That afternoon, as he returned back to the castle after another round of Quidditch practice, he spotted a somewhat curious announcement on the bulletin board. Two steps back… and a few glances around… he snatched the paper from its tack and found himself a valid reason to talk things with Lily.

Things involving a certain person named –

Adrian Sawyer.

For the record, James had managed to keep his mouth shut about what he was planning that afternoon. Of course, the main thing that glued his lips together was the fact that Lily's friends would think he was jealous. _Which I'm not!_ he kept chiding himself and, really, it was because he was, say, paranoid.

That afternoon, he stood at the girls' dormitory door. He was confident enough to ask Lily – especially now that they were going to be alone – why she was suddenly close friends with Adrian; or just plain and simple talking to Adrian. _Not that I'm jealous._ He was curious especially because of the fact that Adrian Sawyer was a boy who fancied sitting in the school grounds – preferably at the edge of the Forbidden Forest – always staring straight at nowhere like he never stopped thinking.

And so… after pre-occupying himself with Quidditch practice, still in his robes, he made a straight path towards Lily's room… door. And with a beat of one, two, three in his head, he knocked at the door and came barging into the room just as Lily opened a crack that she almost tripped backwards. "Sorry," he muttered, noticing that she was a tad literally taken aback by the visit.

"James, what are you doing here?" she asked, with knitted brows. She stepped out of the room and went round about as if looking for something.

James, of course, scratched his head and came out of the dormitory. Because… it's actually pointless to be in a place where the one you wanted to talk to isn't there. "What are you doing?" he asked as he followed her around.

Lily stopped. "You know." She suddenly stood straight up to face James, almost bumping their heads together – as James was slouching slightly. "I've always been curious. How come you and Sirius could come up and down the stairs without falling flat on your faces?"

A shocking yet not out of place inquiry from the brightest girl in seventh year… that James was a bit dumbfounded for a while.

He smiled.

"That's a very interesting question, Lils, but see –"

"Yes, that's why I asked it."

James bit his lip. "Do we have to talk about that right now?"

Lily sighed. "Just curious. I mean I'm Head Girl and this…" she gestured a hand referring to James' person "…a _boy_ in the _girls'_ dormitories… It's just against the rules." She paused and shook her head knowing that James was getting a tad annoyed – much to her enjoyment. "You shouldn't be here."

"Oh, great. You're still angry," declared James, swishing his hands about, not knowing whether to point at her or not – because her mood was fluctuating as mad. Because when suddenly she decided that he was pointing with an accusing finger… he would be half-past dead in a second.

But fortunately for him, she only mocked a look of surprise. "Angry?" she said with a hand on her chest. "I am just being proper, aren't I?"

James stopped. He had run into a dead end… again. And yet, he felt lost. Because that was what Lily always did to him. She drove him crazy like that; it was psychedelic that he swore he could see stars and moon dusts rounding about his head right then. And although his robes apparently gave away that he just came from another Quidditch practice – where Lily wasn't invited, by the way – he sighed and said in a fashion of surrender, "We had Quidditch practice again this afternoon…"

"I know that. I bunk with your Chaser."

"And I know… I still didn't… allow…"

Lily waved a hand. "That's _so_ yesterday."

James was so close into pulling out his spiky unruly hair. "Then why are you mad still?"

"I don't know…!" She stopped and stared at him as if realizing that she just said something wrong. "I AM NOT…! Mad." She gave an audible sigh as she watched him surely in the middle of an agonizing confusion. "You" she bobbed her head "on the other hand, need a shower."

James ran a hand through his face… probably trying to wipe away the sight of Pluto dancing with Saturn's moons in front of his eyes… "Whhh…aaat?" he moaned in a painfully confused manner.

But, Lily, for reasons unknown even to her (apparently), marched back into her room saying, "Yeah, you heard me," before slamming the door shut.

Without another word.

_This was utter insanity!_ James thought as he rubbed his hand profusely on his head that transformed his unruly hair into absolute notorious disarray. But before he could proceed living his momentarily baffling existence, Lily came out of her room again – with an evident mission to ignore him. And so… without thinking twice… as she came towards the stairs – where he was currently standing (still basically lost) – he flashed a piece of paper on her face.

To the content of James Potter's heart, Lily almost fell backwards when he practically stuck the paper to her nose.

Lily made a grunting noise as she collected herself from James' sudden paper-swishing and grabbed the parchment from him. With one look she said, "Hogsmeade weekend this Saturday. This has been up since last month."

"No," James said, pointing up a finger. "That's new. And official. From Dumbledore."

Lily looked at him in confusion. Because the announcement looked the same. _Because it's the same thing!_

"An unbelievably earlier curfew!" James blurted out when Lily seemed to obviously miss the point.

"Uh –" She read the piece of paper more thoroughly this time – "Oh…"

"Oh?" _Oh?!_ "Students should be back on or before six pm," James said in a tone that was only his own – the same tone he used for an entire day when he learned that Quidditch games would likely be cancelled in times of heavy rain. _What? What..? What?!_ "The sun isn't even yawning at six pm."

"The sun doesn't yawn, James."

James let in a deep _deep_ breath of air. "This is the weirdest fight we have had… _E-VER_," he said matter-of-factly.

Lily rolled her eyes. She pushed the paper back at James' chest saying, "We're not fighting," and continued her path towards the staircase leading down the common room.

"No," James muttered with a shrug. "We're just arguing."

"We're not!" Lily protested without stopping. "We're not in any argument… because…" And she left it at that then continued her way down the stairs.

James waited for more… because in any normal conversation, that statement needed… MORE.

But Lily was on a roll and she purposely left him hanging by it.

"Where are you going?" James asked as he followed her down.

"Somewhere."

"You're meeting with someone?"

"Yes. And you can't come –" Lily stopped as she realized that they were standing at the bottom of the stairs. "Is this staircase broken?"

"What?"

But she didn't answer him. She just smiled… a mischievous smile – something she might have actually caught from James Potter. And then, she started up the stairs to try out that little naughty experiment she had in her head.

Now, James, preoccupied with the thought of tailing Lily wherever she went, followed her back up. Well, at least he _tried._ But it was on the sixth step when he realized something wasn't right… the ever familiar loud, wailing, klaxon-like sound resonated within the walls of the staircase – exactly as he remembered it during his first year when he and Sirius tried to play a prank on the girls – and the steps melted together to make a long, smooth stone slide. Suddenly, he was on his knees and then toppling over towards the bottom of the stairs – just like his first year. Only this time, Sirius wasn't there to topple over first and break his fall.

Unfortunately, there was a bit more Gryffindors in the common room than he had expected to see him land on the ground – oh, correction – slide on his face towards the common room floor. But to his luck (or maybe thanks to his reputation) they weren't paying attention – or pretending not to pay attention – because they had expected it of James. After all, he did it once before.

Once he felt the cold hard solid ground kissing his cheeks, he immediately went up on his feet and rubbed the stars and moon dusts that fell off from rounding about his head… _Well, that was profoundly embarrassing. Potter, you are such an idiot!_ And exited the common room like nothing happened.

* * * * *

"I don't want any trouble, alright? Nothing of your nonsensical… nonsense, okay?"

"Well then, you shouldn't have made me come. Anyway, I'm a very sensible man. I don't do nonsensical nonsense. _Sensible_ nonsense maybe… Actually, yes."

Toni stopped and spun around meeting Sirius' eyes with an expression of 'don't make me hurt you' plastered all over her face. Sirius was a few paces behind her as she was making her way towards the Great Hall to meet with Eric – the boy who asked for her help in Arithmancy – the same boy that Sirius was going to mince into a million little pieces the minute his precious Hufflepuff hands place themselves somewhere they didn't belong.

"Be mature about this," Toni carefully mouthed her thoughts one word at a time.

"I'm no—!"

"There's mature," Toni interrupted, counting with her fingers. "There's jealous but forgivable. There's immature, which is not funny –"

"Is that some sort of hierarchy –?"

"And _then_ there's ridiculous, moronic, stupidity!" She interrupted again, pronouncing each word with such emphasis as if placing Sirius in that category.

Sirius made an expression of realization and ridiculousness at the same time. "You know, I don't know which part of this conversation I'm supposed to be offended with but I'll let all of that slip."

"I'm tired. And I'm just saying that I don't want to deal with moronic stupidity."

Sirius let out a loud sigh. "Well then you shouldn't have agreed on teaching this guy Arithmancy!" he said matter-of-factly. "Can't he get someone from his own House? Someone who didn't need any Quidditch practice – because they suck nonetheless."

Toni opened her mouth to retaliate. But then thought better of it and she crossed her arms across her chest. "I'll ask him that if you tell me what you were up to last night."

Suddenly, Sirius fidgeted and ran a hand through his hair. "Last night?"

Toni feigned a shocked expression herself – the same beautiful sarcasm that Sirius fell for in the first place. She rolled her eyes and then scratched her head as she looked at him, frustration evident on her face. "Gallivanting around school again… I'm surprised there wasn't any chaos at breakfast…"

"Because we did NOOOTHING!" Sirius exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

"Oh, yes right… and I'm the queen of England," Toni said in a sing-song voice, as she made a little twirl in her place.

Sirius watched her with a smile on his face – genuinely not knowing if he was going to be delighted or annoyed. He bit his lips as their eyes met again; and batting his eyes… he muttered, "You're the queen of my heart…"

"You're…" Toni paused and after a deep breath of sanity said, "next to impossible. Do you kn—?"

"I know that," Sirius interrupted. "Hey, look! It's your _boyfriend_…" he said, pointing past Toni towards the Hufflepuff table.

"See? You're –"

Sirius watched her struggle with her words as he acted out many _many_ stupid 'What? I can't hear you…' gestures that Toni ended up saying, "Shut up."

"What? I didn't say anything," he said, following her as she turned around and stalked off towards the Hufflepuff table where Eric was at.

Eric stood up from his seat as Toni reached him – with Sirius stalking behind her. "Hi," he greeted with a smile, although there was an obvious confusion on his face. "I… thought we were going to study?"

"That's why I'm here," Toni replied in a lively tone – knowing that Sirius was just right behind her; at the same time, trying to manage to ignore him. But try as she might…

"And me, too," Sirius said, announcing his arrival ever so proudly. "Cause I happen to be an Arithmancy genius." Haughty, conceited, and really stuck-up – but Toni could only elbow him at the ribs to shut him up; and hoping against hope that he would stop piling his credentials on Eric's face.

But Eric – who was confused to begin with – was now perplexity personified, not knowing if he should smile, get offended, or just laugh out loud. He ended up, nevertheless, settling for a soft chuckle. "But I asked _you_ to help me," he said, looking at Toni; practically ignoring the presence of _His Genius._

"Yes… so I'm here." Toni started making her way towards the other side of the table to sit beside Eric. But two enormous hands clutched her on the shoulders – that she almost fell backwards – and realized that Sirius had decided to guide her to sit across the table from Eric, instead. Toni sat reluctantly as she glared at Sirius. And Sirius, being Sirius… only smiled at her and then kissed her on the cheek before he plopped himself beside her.

Eric shook his head, smiled at the ridiculousness of the situation, and sat back down. "I'm sorry. I just didn't know you had a six foot shadow," he muttered under his breath.

"Does it matter?" came Sirius' reply – although he wasn't really supposed to say anything, he realized when Toni shot him an icy glare.

"I didn't mean…" Eric interrupted, sensing a little of why Sirius was there in the first place. "See here, mate," he said, looking at Sirius, "I really just want to understand this subject –"

"And so here we are!" Sirius blurted out in a hundred miles per second, as he drummed his fingers on the table – that was easily disrupted when Toni plunked her huge Arithmancy book on his precious hands. He made a face of pain and she just smiled at him like he smiled at her a while ago.

Toni rolled her eyes at Sirius and faced Eric. "Don't – just ignore him," she said, shaking her head; and waving at Sirius like he was a fly on her nose.

"Yup!" Sirius joyously blurted out still. "I'm just going to be here…" he trailed as he glanced at Toni and saw the plot of his murder in her eyes "…here… eating this…" he stretched his hand and reached for anything to eat at the table, "apple," and smiled annoyingly at Eric.

* * * * *

In a questionable absence of normality, James found himself sitting under the tree by the lake – short of counting the grass leaves around him. He was quite bored for the first time that he didn't have Lily by his side because she, as she said a while ago, 'had other important things to do'.

And he couldn't go with her.

No.

And he didn't try insisting either, thinking that Lily was just trying to get back at him.

He heaved a deep sigh and stood as he picked up a piece of stone from the ground. And with eyes narrowed towards the water… he aimed with much precision… and concentration… then… threw the stone into the lake and watched it jump a few times before it began to sink underwater. He smiled to himself. Apparently, he could be so proud of himself even without anyone watching him. So, he picked up another stone… and another… and another… Until…

James was about to throw another stone into the lake when he saw bubbles from the water like a dozen divers were just coming up from scuba diving. He froze for a moment, curious. And then realized what it was when the water finally stirred and a couple of tentacles rose above the surface. _Oh,_ he thought as he saw the Giant Squid's tentacles rise up into the air. For a while, he thought the Squid got angry with him for throwing those stones that he took a step back a bit startled and, frankly, quite frightened that it might swallow him whole or something. But in another second, the tentacles dived back into the water with much force and speed that James wasn't able to manage to think at all and just realized… SPLASH!

The next thing he knew, he was still standing by the lake – oh, just like a second before – only this time, he was soaking wet and thinking that the Giant Squid was laughing his inks off – if squids could laugh. "Oh, great… Thank you. Thank you very much," James muttered to the water (the Squid disappeared into the lake) as he brushed his wet hair back with his hand. "Not that I didn't take a shower this morning… but a bit of freshening up once in a while doesn't hurt."

He was about to take out his wand to dry himself up when Remus – being the lake as his refuge once in a while – came into the scene and found James as he was still dripping from his robes.

Remus suppressed a laugh as James looked at him with narrow eyes. He scratched his nose, trying to hide the widening smile he had on his face.

And for a few seconds, they just looked at each other as if daring the other to speak.

Fortunately, Remus wasn't Sirius because if he was, then he would push James back into the lake after James magically dried himself. "What have you been doing here…?" Remus asked once James was done dripping wet. He looked around… so many questions in his head rounding about right then and none of them had anything to do with James being there… but James being alone and yet he managed to push himself into the lake? Was that it? "…alone…?"

"Don't I have the right to reflect on my life once in a while?" James answered rather defensively. "You do it all the time!"

"Yes… but I don't take a swim in the lake – with my robes and shoes on – as I ponder on life's delicate balance…" Remus teased, a mischievous smile playing on his lips. "Are you possessed?"

"If you should know," James began as he stuck his wand back in his robe pocket and walked towards Remus, "it's a very confusing time for me… puzzling, actually." He stopped just a few paces from his friend and continued, "Nobody warned me that having Lily Evans as a girlfriend would be one bloomin' labyrinth."

For a while, Remus stared at James like his friend suddenly turned green.

"What?"

"And you have been reading…" Remus quickly said, the smile flashing back on his face. "Using big words now, eh?"

But James ignored Remus and instead, he slowly muttered something out of the ordinary. It was almost a whisper that Remus could barely hear it. "How would you deal with Lily?"

Remus scratched his head. "What do you mean? I deal with her fine. You're the one who always has the problem."

"Well…" James began but hesitating at the same time. "If it turned out that she actually liked you back… you'd be the one in my shoes right now –"

"Why do you ask such questions, Prongs?" Remus interrupted knowing just what James meant by that. He used to like Lily – as more than a friend should – but then, she admitted that she only saw him as a brother and Remus kind of… moved on after that and he wasn't one to think of 'what ifs'. "I don't even know what she saw in you," he replied, instead, lightening the mood. "I'm kidding…" he said as he chuckled when James smirked at him like a little child. "Well… usually, when you're having Lily troubles… you tend to fly around the Quidditch field…"

James cleared his throat and said hesitantly, "I don't quite have my broom right now."

"Your pride and joy?" Remus chuckled. "And why aren't you going ballistic right now? Unless it was confiscated by a certain girl named Lily… Evans."

"Yes!" James suddenly exclaimed that Remus involuntarily took a step back. He sounded excited.

It was weird.

"Yes…? And you're happy?"

"I'm so stupid!"

"About what? Letting her have your pride possession?"

"It's a good idea!"

By this time, Remus had completely abandoned all hope of understanding what his friend was talking about that he just simply muttered, "Wow, really?" as he scratched his head while watching James smile suspiciously… "Are you sure you're alright?"

"No, it's great… And you know what's so best about it?" James continued, utterly unaware that he was quickly sailing away into the sea of the crazy and left Remus in sane land.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Uh-What?" he said, when James only looked at him as if waiting for him to answer the question.

_I_ thought about it. I! Me! Not Sirius Black. James Potter."

Remus stared for a while at James and then said, "Uh-huh. Alright. Go on then," as he gestured James to get away from him. But in the second, without any warning… James' hand grabbed his arm and quickly dragged him away from the lake and back to the castle. "Hey… wait – what? – wait!"

* * * * *

Toni heaved a sigh and glanced to her side. Sirius was still sitting beside her although his head was already resting on his hand as he drifted off to sweet slumber about ten minutes ago. So much for being 'Sirius, Arithmancy extraordinaire!' She, on the other hand, had just finished explaining a rather complicated formula to Eric. "Now, do you get it?" she said, as she straightened up, stretching her back.

Fortunately, Eric smiled and said, "I actually do. Now I get it."

"Oh great, then." It was Sirius, miraculously waking up from his snoring. Toni shook her head. She knew it. It was too good to be true that Sirius would let himself fall asleep when she was just inches away from Eric – or Error, as Sirius called him. "Is it over?" Sirius said.

"Not quite," Eric replied, his expression ambiguous of whether he was enjoying that Sirius was annoyed or that he was actually sorry that Sirius was annoyed. "There's just one thing that's still bothering me," he said; and gestured for the Muggle pen that Toni was holding. He reached out as Toni handed him the pen that he slightly touched her hand. It wasn't like they were short of quills, actually… But somehow, the ink bottle they were using just a minute ago had managed to disappear. Eric smiled as he held the Muggle pen in his hand. "One of the many things that fascinate me about Muggles, actually."

Toni smiled.

And Sirius saw this.

He wasn't very happy and the ink bottle had reappeared on the table at the same time. He smirked at Eric and with a tone of sarcasm Toni rubbed on him, he said, "Wait 'till you hear of the telephone. It will drive you crazy. You'd think bells are ringing in you ears." He smiled, as both Eric and Toni looked at him. "Honest!"

* * * * *

Still dragging a hesitant Remus along with him back to the castle, James' eyes caught sight of her favorite redhead across the school grounds. Lily had just finished talking with a fellow student who he recognized at once – Bianca, a Ravenclaw prefect. "Lily!" he called out. He quickened his pace towards her direction not taking any chances on his girlfriend disappearing on him again.

Remus saw this as an opportunity to disappear himself. He wasn't going to wait and see whatever 'good' idea was bubbling in his friend's head right then.

Lily waved goodbye to Bianca and waited for James to reach her with his giant steps. And at the moment of contact – like a freakish dj vu – her hand came swishing up as she flashed a flyer on his nose. "Whoa!" James blurted out as he backed up a good few inches away.

Still a bit cross-eyed, he took the parchment from Lily's hand. "A Prefect's Meeting?" he said, reading it.

With an audible sigh and a roll of the eyes, Lily stepped closer to James looking at him as if that would squeeze out the proper memory from the recesses of his brain. "Hogsmeade weekend…" she said. "Prefects meeting… Hello?" she added, hoping against hope that a ray of light would shine upon him.

And fortunately, it did. "Perfect," James groaned, scratching his head. "I forgot all about that."

Lily snorted. "Along with so many things…" she muttered under her breath as she pretended to shuffle among the books she was carrying.

"Again with the fighting."

"Uh!" Lily feigned a shock expression. "We're not fighting!" she insisted – still partly trying to convince herself.

"Oh I bet we do!"

"No we're not!"

"The fact that you're disagreeing with me if we're having a fight or not _is_ a fight itself. Face it Lily, we're fighting."

Lily rolled her eyes. "You're ridiculous. Just be there tomorrow at the meeting."

* * * * *

"What kind of fight are you actually in that you have to hide this from James?"

Lily looked up and saw Toni across the dormitory room – holding up a broomstick. "I'm not hiding that," she said as she closed the door behind her and walked past towards her bed. "He left it. And I'm not going to give it back until…" she trailed and ended with a groan. She unloaded her books and threw herself on the bed – acting like the conversation was over.

"Until…?" asked Toni in a sing-song voice. She put the broomstick against one of Lily's bedposts and sat beside her. But Lily only stared back as if she heard nothing. "Well?"

Lily hesitated for another second but finally sighed audibly and said, "Until God knows when," staring straight up at the roof of her bed.

Toni lay down beside Lily and sighed herself. "For what it's worth, Sirius is annoying the hell out of me."

"Tutoring went bad, huh?"

"Oh God!" Ton exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "It was totally exhausting! I felt I was watching over two six-year-olds."

"Why?" Lily chuckled. Somehow, she was thankful that she wasn't in Toni's shoes right then. "Sirius met his annoying match? Must've have been painful."

"Actually… come to think of it, Eric wasn't the pain in the neck. It was Sirius Black. Sometimes, I feel like he's just being immature on purpose."

"Boys…" Lily groaned in agreement.

Toni sat up and looked at Lily straight in the eyes. "You're still upset about that tiff you had, aren't you?"

"N-nooo…" Lily said in utter denial. She grabbed a random book from the foot of her bed and lay on her stomach – browsing through the pages thoughtlessly.

"Lily," Toni said, putting a sudden halt on Lily's page-ripping activities.

"Hey –"

"Lily… it was just… a Quidditch practice."

"I know that."

"He felt guilty after you left."

"I know."

Toni narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "So… what exactly is the problem, Lily?"

"Nothing." Lily pushed herself up from the bed and stood up – arms crossed.

"You're still upset… because suddenly… James isn't crawling at your feet anymore?"

Lily's jaws dropped at Toni. "I can't believe you just said that!" her voice screeched in the highest pitch her voice could possibly go.

Toni smirked and stood up. "Well I can't believe you're holding our Quidditch captain's broom hostage. You _do_ know that as much as I like you… we _want_ – no – we _need_ to win this game." She paused as Lily stared blankly at her – looking utterly careless about whatever worth Quidditch could have. "Li-ly!" she shrieked in a very unrecognizable way as she shook her friend on the shoulders. Fortunately, this woke Lily up from her trance. Because Toni wasn't exactly the shrieking type… unless it was utterly necessary.

Like… right now, apparently.

"Lily," Toni began again, as she stared at her straight in the eyes. "Do you know why we need to win this game? Because if we don't win this match… it means that _Slytherin_ – yes… Slytherin – those… greasy dungeon people – it means that they win the match. They. Will. Have. The Quidditch Cup. Lily!" she shrieked again, making Lily jump. "It means that we would have lost to them. We would be less than those greasy dungeon people." She slowed down… to her final words. "We… are… _doomed…_"

A strong pause surrounded everything for a good solid second until Lily had recovered from her friend's sudden outburst. "Oh my God, when did you get so overly dramatic?"

"I cannot possibly repel everything Sirius Black. I tend to absorb some of his insanity," Toni replied as she grabbed James' Cleansweep and handed it to Lily.

Surrendering to the inevitable anyway, Lily sighed audibly. "Fine," she groaned and grabbed the broom from Toni. "I'll give this back to him." But as she made her way to the door, she retreated just as quickly. "Yes, maybe in an hour."

"I'm counting."

* * * * *

While Lily was mustering up enough patience and humility… James was still in the school grounds, scratching his head looking for a way to carry out his master plan. As he strolled around in so deep a thought which would start scaring Remus, he heard a sound that would unmistakably be music that seemed to be coming from the Forbidden Forest.

Strange.

He had never heard of centaurs playing… music.

More interested than intrigued, James followed the sound towards the Forbidden Forest. He was well aware that going inside the forest was forbidden… but then again… going into the kitchens in the middle of the night was also forbidden in some unwritten rule book… he would do it anyway. So what would be the difference?

But he didn't need to go inside the forest. Because as he reached the edge of the woods, he came across the source of the sound – Adrian. Yes, _who else could it be?_ he thought. As he stalked up to Adrian, resting against one of the trees, he could hear Lily's voice nagging at the back of his mind. _Potter, what do you think you're doing?! Potter, are you out of your mind?! Potter, he's done nothing to you. Pot—_

"Potter…"

For a second there, James thought Lily just Apparated behind him. But then he realized… Lily's voice, though as feisty as she might be, was as girly as her petite size. Not nearly to sound like a guy who had gone under puberty three years ago. Besides, the music had suddenly stopped playing… so best to say it was probably Adrian.

He looked back at the forest as Adrian turned around and faced James – who, by now, shook himself off of his trance and continued to strut rather dauntingly towards Adrian.

"I knew it's just some time before this happens." Adrian muttered, squinting to shade his eyes from the sun; but nonetheless, was quite unaware that James was supposed to make him feel a bit intimidated. Quite possibly, maybe he thought that James just stuck a piece of board on his back and neck.

As peculiar as it was that Adrian knew that he, Potter, was the one stalking up behind him, James managed to act just as casually. He walked a few more steps without saying a word as he kept his hands in his robe pockets – aside from trying to remain stern in spite of himself; mostly it was because he knew that flailing his arms animatedly in the air while talking wasn't exactly exuding much confidence, especially when you're trying to intimidate someone. "And what exactly is _this_ that's happening?" he said with a shrug; and gave himself a good smack on the head in his mind. _What?! What exactly is_ this _that's happening?! Is that everything you can come up with?!_

Adrian smiled a smile like he knew something that James didn't… and leaned back on his tree, comfortably looking up at James' six-foot stature hovering him. "What brings you here then, eh?"

James cleared his throat, looking around as if the reasons were rustling within the leaves around him. "Well… for one…" he paused. "This forest is forbidden."

There was a pause. And Adrian looked at James, clearly waiting for something more – something more that would make a little bit… _more _sense. "Are you serious?" Obviously, that was everything.

"Uh—" James ran a hand through his hair and sniffed like something repulsive just passed through his nose – probably something he'd picked up from the many Muggle movies he'd seen. "It's the Forbidden Forest," he shrugged, "I'm not joking."

Adrian chuckled under his breath. James ignored him. "I mean, are you serious that you came all the way here just to tell me that?" He paused to watch James carrying on with his 'grim' face – that no one was actually used to because he never really reprimanded any one like… that – weird authoritative, almost Malfoy-ish manner. "I'm not going in," Adrian pointed, "the forest. If that's what you mean."

"So… what exactly is this that's happening?" James repeated… lost for anything else to say.

Adrian smirked, apparently unaffected and finding this situation quite amusing at the same time. "Hmmm…" he mumbled and slowly said, "I'm only taking a wild guess… but does anything about this answer to Lily Evans?"

James would have said something to deny that it was about Lily Evans. Because it _wasn't_ about Lily Evans. Or… at least when he knitted his eyebrows and flashed an expression of total denial directly at Adrian… it wasn't about Lily Evans.

It really wasn't.

It… really… not-exactly—alright-maybe-just-a-little-bit-about-Lily-Evans.

"For what it's worth," Adrian said, as James stood before him – starting to twitch as he tried to stay standing still – "I'm not the kind who steals…. anything," he eyed James meaningfully, "or any_one_."

James snorted. "And what exactly does that have to do with anything I have to say to you?" He stopped suddenly, realizing that his hands had escaped and were now waving uncontrollably in the air.

Adrian cleared his throat but didn't say anything. Somehow, he liked the idea of James being lost for words… oh, to shut up one of the two most annoyingly noisy people of Hogwarts – it was a feat that he knew only Lily Evans had done before. "Everything," he said as he stood up. "Alright," he shrugged, "humor me. What is it that you have to say to me, anyhow?" he raised his harmonica and blew out a very _very_ familiar music to James. "Look, mate, I have to go," he said, not waiting for any reply. "But if you need anything," he played out that tune again, "I'll just be in the castle."

James opened his mouth to call out a retreating Adrian but no words could come out. Adrian was eerily right all the way… about him being the one stalking up from behind, about Lily Evans… even about that tune Adrian suddenly kept on playing as he made his way back to the castle.

Curious.

* * * * *

An hour later, after Toni practically pushed Lily out of the girls' dormitories together with James' Cleansweep, Lily grudgingly dragged herself up the boys' staircase towards James' dorm room. _Ah! This is unbelievable!_ She was very much hesitant in doing this. After all, _he_ was the one who needed to apologize. Or at least, that was what she believed. _Because my stupidity has been over! I've already kissed his virus-infested mouth last week! I caught a flu, by the way –_

"Hi, Lils, what are you doing here?"

Lily turned to see Remus standing beside her – standing at the door… outside their dorm room.

When she didn't respond, Remus smiled, noticing what Lily had in her hand. "So, it's true, you're holding that hostage," he said, pointing at the Cleansweep in her hand. Lily smiled in agreement. "You know, you might have actually done something good… see… James' vocabulary shot up to a level of extreme weirdness when I saw him _reflecting_ about things a while ago at the lake."

"Yeah, well—"

"Remus! Where have you been, you feral dog?"

Lily and Remus both turned their heads and saw James opened the door. But none of them had the time to react as James pulled Remus inside the room, quite apparently ignoring Lily.

"Hey," Lily called out as James was about to close the door behind him.

"Lily…" James smiled. The door was so thinly opened that only half his face was showing.

"Uh… can we talk?"

James looked at her for a second and cleared his throat. He turned back inside the room and then back at Lily. Scratching his head, he said, "You know, now's not really a good time."

But Lily only rolled her eyes and thought that if she kept on talking anyway, he would listen. "Look, James—"

"I'll talk to you later. I promise," James interrupted and then, without as much as a warning, closed the door.

"W—Hey!" Lily shrieked, jumping back in surprise. "Did you just slam the door on my face, you miserable prat?!" she called as she repeatedly banged on the door as hard as she could. And realizing that her petite hands were not enough, she started banging James' Cleansweep on the door. After all, it was much sturdier and James could buy another one in a heartbeat in case she decided to break it into million little shreds.

"Later, Lils." Lily heard James' voice traveled from the other side of the door.

"What?!" Lily demanded, exhaling audibly as she ceased banging the door at the poor broom's expense. "Why won't you let me in?"

Lily was about to knock again when suddenly, James opened the door to peek outside. He sighed audibly. "This is the boys' dormitory. And this… a girl… in the _boys'_ dormitories… it's just not right." He smiled a very sheepish smile that made Lily's hair stand on end.

As a sign of resignation, Lily kicked the door so hard that it hit James' face in the process.

"Ouch…!" James groaned.

"You are such a pain in the ass," Lily grumbled under her breath. "Fine then!" she said before she stormed back down the stairs. "And I'm turning this broom into a million little toothpicks!"

Now, James would've panicked if Lily had blurted that out at any other time. But not this time. Because, this time, he had a plan. And besides, she wouldn't _really_ shred his Cleansweep into a million little toothpicks… would she?

* * * * *

"Sirius! Black!"

Three heads – belonging to James, Sirius, and Remus – emerging down from the boys' staircase looked up to see a really annoyed Toni standing in the common room. Apparently, she had been waiting there, but then again, as the girl said… she was after only one of them – Sirius Black.

Sirius smiled widely and walked up to Toni like he hadn't seen her in ages. "Toni!" He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, which seemed to have no effect at all because the next thing he knew, Toni was flashing a piece of note on his face.

"I told you to stay away from him. Don't fail to listen the next time," she said, reciting the words on the paper. And after a deep sigh of frustration, she glared at Sirius. "Seriously?!"

Sirius didn't respond but grabbed the paper from her. Alright, this note-sender was starting to crawl up his skin. "Oh, that's it. I'm going to trace who's been sending this rubbish."

Toni knitted her eyebrows and shook her head. "What?" Because, really, he just needed to look in the mirror.

"Boils and warts?" Sirius said, suggesting the ideas bubbling in his mind. Finally, a legitimate reason to give someone a toad skin in the early morning breakfast time. "Maybe horns and a tail…"

"Alright, hold it," James interrupted, grabbing Sirius by the shoulders.

"I know! What about a Mohawk made of skunk's hair? And stink?" Sirius insisted, really getting into it. But James pulled him aside before he started making up more possible ways of torture.

"We'll deal with that later. I'll just have to borrow him for a while," James smiled apologetically at Toni, who already had her hands on her hips – staring at them with vicious _vicious_ eyes. "He's going to be returned in one piece. And then you can mince him after then, alright?"

"Wh-what…?" Sirius protested, having no clue where the conversation just went.

"Fine, take him," Toni said in hesitation, rolling her eyes. "He'll just send me another note, anyway." She shrugged, raising her hand in surrender.

"But I didn't send the note!" Sirius shrieked a girly shriek that his voice broke three times as he delivered that measly sentence – probably also because James had finally pulled him towards the portrait hole by his collar.

"Yeah… tell me about it in your little note," Toni smirked walking past them through the portrait hole herself.

"Wait!" James called out as they, too, left the common room. But when Toni ignored him, he nudged Sirius to do something.

"Toni…!" Sirius called, as he ran after her. "Oh… An-twa-nehhtt!" he called her louder – by her full name, his voice bouncing off the walls – and worse, he was singing. And surely, raising the hair out of the skin of every person who could hear him.

Well, at least that stopped her from walking any further. Toni spun around with her hands across her chest and glared with eyes so narrow, Sirius was starting to look like a maniacal bug just waiting to be squashed. "What?"

"Well…" Sirius started, holding Toni's hand in his. "I think you should go back to your room. Is Lily there, by the way?"

Toni raised an eyebrow and cautiously, asked, "Why?"

"Why? Well… why…" he turned to look at James.

"Because you know how these two are crazy, you know," Remus interrupted, circling a finger at the side of his head – crazy. Toni looked past Sirius and at Remus who was leaning lazily against the wall beside him. "And Lily still has that broom of James, yeah?"

"Oh, yeah…" Toni's face lightened up with a mischievous glint. "She was just about to dissect it a while ago," she added with a shrug.

"What? No… she wouldn't do that," James said as unaffected as he could be… but deep inside, he knew, he wanted to run back inside that portrait hole and yell his insides out for Lily to spare his Cleansweep. "No. No." He paused. "Toni, please don't tell me you're being serious."

"Fine," Toni sighed audibly. "I'm being serious. No, I'm not being serious. Wait. What was the question again?" She waited for some form of twitch or any sort of reaction from the three, just so she could raise her index finger to interrupt them. "No, wait…" she said with a quizzical look on her face, as if she was trying to remember something. "I mean—" And then she turned around without another word – practically skipping away into the halls.

It was a good few seconds before James and Sirius realized what happened. Sirius turned to James with eyebrows knitted before blinking a few times. "Wait. What…?"

* * * * *

Half an hour later, Lily was still staring at that abominable Cleansweep that she had thrown on top of her bed. She was deliberating on throwing it down on the floor and stomping on it for no end. But then, she might actually put a dent on it – which was not really an option because as angry as she was with James Potter, she wanted the Gryffindor House to win the Quidditch Cup or else Slytherin smirks would be parading the hallways as long as the remaining of the school year lasted. Her endless pondering was only interrupted when someone entered the room.

It was Toni, carrying a tray load of food. "You can't. Just can't. Apparently, you simply just cannot keep having me do this every time you and James have one of your weird moments," she said before Lily could breathe a single word.

"Weird moments?"

Toni sighed deeply and rolled her eyes. She placed the tray on Lily's bedside table and then turned back to her friend. "It's not that you're going to drive me insane. Apparently, I'm used to that now."

"Hey –!"

"If this keeps happening, people are gonna think that I'm being such a pig having to carry off with all this food after I've already had my dinner!" Toni declared before a cupcake on the tray caught her eye and she started to feast on it. "Shut up," she said when Lily eyed her meaningfully. "I'm the one who brought you dinner."

Lily chuckled and said, "You're also starting to get the Sirius' appetite, you know," as she bit into her sandwich. She smiled from ear to ear when Toni suddenly stared back in wide-eyed protest. "I'm not going to try dragging you out of bed if next thing you have is an over-the-top love of sleeping."

"Huh!" Toni exclaimed and grabbed the second and last cupcake on the tray. "No dessert for you, young lady." She smirked as Lily gave a sudden surprise. She backed a few steps away and leaned against the window as she enjoyed her second helping. "What are you bumming about anyway? At least James is not being such a boy sending you anonymous notes telling you to stay away from the Quidditch pitch."

"Oh, James? Not being a boy? The fact that he kicked me out of Quidditch practice was a concrete proof enough. I could go to court for official declaration with just that."

"I don't even know now if he's being overly insecure or just being such an immature jerk."

Lily pondered for a while. "Either way, that's being immature don't you think?" She paused and then chuckled. "Or maybe he actually admits that Eric Flatts is better-looking than him!" she said before laughing with Toni. "Anyway, you're not entirely sure that Sirius has been sending those notes. I would think that he's got enough sense to not address you as Antoinette Turner."

Toni let out a sigh of defeat. "Yeah, probably. But still…"

A few seconds of silence ensued as they enjoyed the rest of their dinner. Then, from somewhere outside the window, a sound of some sort of music entered the room. It was the sounds of guitar playing. Lily looked at Toni, who was standing at the window. And lo and behold, Toni almost choked on her cupcake when she saw such an awfully puzzling scenario. Lily then stood up from her bed and neared the window, not really knowing what to expect from the reactions on Toni's face.

"Lily!"

"Omygod…" Lily whispered, her hand placed involuntarily on her chest – seeing James in his most detention-deserved effort as of date.

"Lily!" James exclaimed again as he saw her standing at the window. "There you are, my love!"

It took a while, but they realized that James, Sirius, Remus… and Adrian – of all people – were standing on some kind of a platform. Only, this platform was floating by the works of some spell – like a magic carpet, only it was wood. And Adrian – poor thing – was holding his guitar playing the intro into a Muggle song as they floated up to the girls' bedroom window.

Putting the surprise of having to see meek and quiet Adrian dragged into this maniacal circus aside, Lily put her hands on her hips and demanded, "What on earth are you doing, Potter? You're not allowed to do that."

James ignored all the ongoing questions in both the girls' faces. He smiled endearingly at Lily and said with a glint of mischief in his eyes, "Oh but I'm not _in_ the girls' dormitories…"

"And you dragged Adrian into this?" Lily could not put that thought aside any longer. Because apparently, the chaos was just starting to get more disastrous as other Gryffindor girls were getting curious themselves and began looking out their own windows.

James smiled even wider glancing at Adrian and then back at her. "Yeah… I realized that. Peter couldn't be here but in any way, Peter cannot play a mean guitar, can he? 'Cause we lot are not really gifted with musical talents except from…" he paused – but that didn't make anything better anyway, "singing!"

"Oh my God. When did that happen?" Toni protested, eyeing Sirius lividly. She was about to turn back and leave the insanity when Sirius suddenly yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Hey you!" he called. "As I am already standing here, this is for you too."

Toni's face almost dropped to the floor. She so wished that although she was connected to Sirius in some way, this wouldn't happen. "What?!" No way would she be sung to from a flying platform with Sirius singing! "Don't even think about it!"

"Oh…" Sirius said as if reconsidering all things embarrassing. But apparently, "Too late."

Toni turned crimson red at the humiliation of everything that was happening. It was madness! Sheer madness! She covered her face as if not knowing Sirius and tried to escape once again. But Sirius only got louder. "Oh, don't go turning your back at me!" So she decided to stay and resolved to the fact that maybe this would be the lesser of two evils.

Lily, on the other hand, turned to Remus looking like this was one heck of a question she wanted answers to. But Remus just shrugged and muttered, "Just in the wrong place at the wrong time," as he steadied his wand, apparently being the one assigned to keep the platform floating.

She was about to say something else. Maybe a spell to bind them all to complete silence and then turn back time and just studied in the library like she was supposed to! Maybe this wouldn't have happened? Because she wouldn't have gotten the idea to attend Quidditch practice. And then she wouldn't have to argue with James and his weird antics. And maybe… just maybe… this horrendous event wouldn't have happened.

Just maybe.

But too late because James turned to Adrian and shouted. "Hit it!" And then the guitar playing went louder and the shame… oh the shame… just kept on coming.

"Oh, sugar. Oh, honey honey. You are my candy girl…! And you got me wanting you…"

"Oh please let this be a bad dream," Lily muttered to herself, shaking her head as she looked onto the heavens… maybe a terrible lightning storm would do it.

"Oh, honey!" It was now Sirius' turn to sound like a dying cat… or a pig about to be roasted alive. "Oh, sugar sugar. You are my candy girl… And you got me wanting you!" He even had the nerve to wink at Toni.

"I just can't believe the loveliness of loving you…" James sang again.

"I just can't believe it's true." As Sirius took over the second voice.

"I just can't believe the one to love this feeling too…"

"I just can't believe it's true."

As the chorus came in, they both belted out, "Oh, sugar. Oh, honey honey. You are my candy girl…!!! …And you got me wanting you…!!!"

"Oh honey!" James cried out, his throat just trying to give up on him.

"Oh sugar, sugar," Sirius let out before he muttered quickly to James, "Don't shout too much. Stay on tune."

"You are my candy girl…!"

"And you got me wanting you!"

As the instrumental break of the song played, Toni bit her lip and shook her head. "This is the most embarrassing thing to have ever happened to me."

"Hey!" Sirius yelled, swaying to Adrian's guitar playing, as he looked on Toni. "We're not yet finished."

"Apparently! Because I haven't dropped dead yet!"

But he ignored Toni as his part came up once more. "When I kissed you girl, I knew how sweet a kiss could be."

"I knew how sweet a kiss could be."

"Like the summer sunshine, pour your sweetness over me."

"Pour your sweetness over me."

And with the last lines of the song, James and Sirius created such a ruckus that the other girls watching from their windows were already laughing. "Oh!!! Pour a little sugar on it honey!!!...!!! Pour a little sugar on it baby!...!!!!..." They alternated and adlibbed their own lines and it was complete insanity but apparently so heartfelt for them since they both had their eyes a bit closed to be able to _feel_ the message of the song.

And then Sirius just went for it and sang in a high note, "I'm gonna make your life so sweet, yeah yeah yeah!!!"

The last 'yeah' just rang endlessly in the air because Adrian suddenly stopped playing. For some reason, that was the only time Sirius actually felt a slight embarrassment. He turned to Adrian and rolled his eyes. "I wasn't finished."

But James nudged him and all of them looked down to the ground. Unfortunately for them, Professor McGonagall was looking up at them with stern eyes through her glasses. But fortunately for Lily and Toni, the mortification which seemed to have run on endlessly was finally over.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black…" she paused for a while and adjusted her glasses, unsure if she was seeing their faces clearly, "Mr. Lupin…" she declared slowly still a bit uncertain that Remus actually participated in this big of an antic. "And Mr. –" she completely stopped when she saw Adrian. She was expecting to say Peter Pettigrew just because he would complete the four but… surprise surprise! "Sawyer?"

"Professor," Adrian acknowledged in a soft voice and a slight wave.

There was a split second that McGonagall's mouth looked like it dropped. No one noticed though, because the attention that James and Sirius attracted was not fading very fast. "I suggest you get yourselves down here right this minute if you do not wish to extend your detention until _after_ you leave Hogwarts," McGonagall managed to say, after finally settling on the facts.

"Be right there, Professor!" James replied in a jovial mood no matter what. After so many years of detention with McGonagall, he had learned that no amount of sucking up would lead him out of punishment. But before the platform started floating down towards the ground, he heard Lily muttered, "James, you're such a geek." He turned to her and winked. "I know. That's why you love me." He smiled, although Lily just smirked and rolled her eyes at him.

* * * * *

After classes, McGonagall led the way through the halls with James, Sirius, Remus, and Adrian following her. It was time for their detention which was all worth it according to James – and Sirius perhaps – but turned out to be a really stupid idea for Remus and Adrian apparently. While McGonagall walked the halls in her normally stern manner, James and Sirius sauntered behind her calmly.

"McGonagall looks awfully relaxed," Adrian whispered to Remus. "In her own way," he added noting that McGonagall was a different kind of human behavior.

Remus smiled. This was probably the first time Adrian was ever in detention and expected McGonagall to be a bit vile, perhaps, because she liked order among the students. "It's James and Sirius," he replied, bobbing his head towards the two. "To be honest, what they did earlier was so above behaved compared to their other antics pre-detention." He paused, thinking it over. Other students would've probably only gotten some sort of warning. Adrian could've had just a warning, too… if only he wasn't with James and Sirius at that time. "Honestly, these two should include detention as part of their class schedules."

Adrian gave out a nervous chuckle. "So where is she taking us exactly?" he asked again when they turned a corner, noticing that they were now directly towards the trophy room at the end of the hall.

All four of them waited as McGonagall opened the door. Sirius and James were still head-banging to the tune they were singing that afternoon – even if that song was not even remotely close to suitably head-bang to. "I reckon they've done this before?" Adrian muttered to Remus as he watched James and Sirius bobbing their heads.

Remus smiled widely. "More than McGonagall would wanna count, actually," he replied as the professor led them into the room.

Big wasn't an enough word to describe the trophy room. It was enormous – like the Great Hall – only filled with… trophies. There were shelves upon shelves of golden, silver, and bronze cups and the walls were covered with plaques and a few golden brooms stuck to the wall. Adrian's eyes could not help but wander. It was so vast he wondered how many years of trophies were actually in the room. Of course, he had never been this part of the castle as he was more preoccupied with schoolwork and his music instruments. Could not say the same thing about the Marauders, though. They were very well versed with various parts of the castle.

"Well," McGonagall started, clasping her hands together as she looked at each of them and probably thought that this was going to be as useless as the other hundreds of detentions they had. "This room is in dire need of dusting as you may notice," she turned around completely aware of the vastness of the room, "starting with one trophy at a time."

"Oh no," James shook his head in disbelief. "I thought you were going to make us sweep the floor or something—"

"The floors are quite clean, Mr. Potter."

"Professor, this place is hundreds of years old!" James squeaked. "I might even see my great great great great grandfather's name carved on one of these."

"Well, you earned it, Mr. Potter."

Adrian shifted. He was a bit confused. "Well, how hard can it be to clean this place? I know a spell—"

But even before Adrian could finish, James snorted and Sirius let out a 'tsk tsk' sound, shaking his head. "Oh Sawyer… you goodie-goodie," Sirius said as he pulled his wand from his robe pocket.

"What?" Adrian watched as Sirius handed his wand to McGonagall. Next was James. Then Remus. Like they were doing some sort of secret 'hand shake.'

That was how much they were in detention – they actually had formed some sort of standard operating procedure.

"No magic, Mr. Sawyer," McGonagall said, nodding at him to indicate that his wand was being confiscated, too. Then, she conjured up four pails of water, some soap, and a pile of rags beside her. "Mr. Potter and Mr. Sawyer will be starting with this side," she pointed at the left side of the room, "and Mr. Black and Lupin will be starting with _that_ side," she pointed at the right side of the room.They all stared at her. "Well? If you're going to finish before midnight, I suggest you begin now," she said, clapping her hands. The four started getting their own pail of water, soap and rags.

"Midnight?" James asked. "Aren't we supposed to be back in our Houses at ten?"

"My office is down the hall, Mr. Potter. I'll be back before midnight to check on you." They all just shrugged at each other.

But McGonagall was already halfway out the door when Adrian called, "Wait, how are we going to rinse—?"

"No," Sirius grabbed Adrian on the shoulder and turned him around away from McGonagall. "No, Sawyer… shshsh…" He did this as he shook his head at McGonagall as if to say 'don't mind him, he's new to detention.'

They all smiled and kept quiet until McGonagall left them.

"I may be wrong here," Adrian started as soon as the door closed, "but this is physically impossible."

Sirius just shrugged. "Yeah… actually you're right." Then he left with Remus and went to the other side of the room.

"Uh—" Adrian was going to call them back, to regroup or maybe form a strategy on how to go about the cleaning process. But then again, what was the point? They probably knew what they were doing. And so, he turned to James, who was left standing next to him.

"Don't worry," James said with the same offhand shrug his best friend just gave a while ago. "She's not seriously going to keep us here until everything's spick and span." He carried his supplies and stopped by the dusty – almost grimy – Quidditch trophies.

Adrian followed him and chose the shelf across from James'. He put down his supplies beside him and sighed audibly. "So this is what you do, huh?" he said, as he ran a finger on the surface of one of the trophies. And then sneezed. "Seriously, mate? They really don't clean this?"

"Yep," James replied, not really understanding what Adrian just said. He grabbed one of the Quidditch cups and started rubbing profusely. "What you do for a woman," he muttered under his breath.

"You'd die for her."

"Huh?" James turned around, not really hearing what Adrian just said. Because they both could hear Sirius' singing voice bouncing off the walls.

Adrian only smiled. "I mean really? Black and Turner?"

James laughed. "Toni has never had detention," he said. And then raised his voice so that he could be heard at the other side of the room, "And good for her, eh, Sirius?! Or else Toni would be begging me to be a Beater so she could have her own bat to shut you up with!"

Sirius' singing stopped. "I told you, Prongs! She's a Chaser! And she's a very good one! Let's not mess things about!"

James broke out into a loud laugh.

"What about you?" Adrian asked James, as he finished polishing the medal in his hands. "Ever thought of being a Chaser?"

"I'm a Seeker," James snorted.

"Change is good. The enemy won't know what to do. Talk about unexpected."

* * * * *

At exactly eleven forty-five in the evening, McGonagall came back into the room and dismissed them; but not before, unfortunately, handing their wands back to them. The boys happily went back to their Houses or so they should. But Remus made a detour into the Astronomy Tower that night. Hoping to encounter a friendly face perhaps.

"Oh, that's just not right," Sirius blurted out the minute Remus told them to go ahead to the dormitories. "Are you carrying that notebook with you _now_?"

"Shut up," Remus said as he ignored his friends' impersonations of girly giggles; and made his way to the Astronomy Tower.

Remus made a bee line into the Astronomy classroom as fast as he could. He wasn't keen on having another detention due to staying out after the curfew. _Now, if only she was here,_ he thought as he opened the classroom door very quietly.

The classroom was dark; with only the little light from the night sky piercing in through the windows. He could barely see the furniture and actually bumped his foot onto one of the hard-wood desks with a quiet thump.

"Huh!" A soft gasp came from inside the classroom.

"Hello?" he whispered through the dark, squinting at the direction where he heard the voice.

Nobody answered.

"Someone's here. I know I wasn't imagining," he said but still no one answered. But in the next second, there was a scuffling noise that sounded like a pair of feet in a hurry.

Remus watched closely and saw a shadow moving through the room. He could easily follow the figure now as his eyes adjusted to the dark – the silhouette of a girl shifted from one window to the other in a hurry.

"Wha—?! How did you do that?"

Remus was now face to face with the other midnight prowler – Lucy. _It's her!_ "I—" he stopped as he figured out where he was. "…don't know," he continued in confusion as he realized that literally one second ago, he was standing a good twenty feet from the window where they were now standing by.

"Uh… did you just Apparate?" Lucy spoke, as she moved aside from Remus and for the door. Although, she was taking her time for she was curious herself.

Remus turned and followed her with his eyes. He was still trying to picture the details of her face. Their moment that other night was very brief. Even so, that time outside the library. But he couldn't risk having to charm his wand with 'Lumos' just in case any teacher – or Filch – was lurking about just hunting for students to put into detention. Or put _back_ into detention – that would be the case for him.

"You can't Apparate in Hogwarts –"

"I know," Lucy interrupted as Remus began to explain. She turned around and stood still, facing him. Something about the dark made her feel comfortable enough to stay this time. "I can't. But how would I know that you can't?"

"I didn't. I can't."

Lucy let out a sarcastic chuckle. "You just ran very fast. Lunged like a dog, huh?"

Remus was stopped. Her comment hit very close to home. "Not—" he paused, "not like a dog. Just… ran – it was dark! How sure are you that I wasn't standing next to you and you just didn't see me?"

"Because this room is not completely black and I'm not completely blind," she breathed in before she added, "_Remus._"

And as if hypnotized when she called his name, Remus took a step towards her. "You know my name."

Lucy shook her head and sighed. "You hang with Potter and Black, who seem to never get tired of pissing off the Slytherins… I think everyone knows your name at least. And don't change the subject," she suddenly said, pointing at him. Although, it didn't really do anything much for they could barely see each other.

Remus chuckled softly. "It's not that important." He paused and waited for her to say something. He watched as Lucy's silhouette appeared to sit down.

"You're magicked," said Lucy, her voice accusing. It wasn't a question nor even an innocent statement.

Right at that moment, Remus sensed a spirit of uneasiness from her. It was familiar… like she knew something and she was afraid of it. Yet, he treaded slowly towards her, and then sat on one of the chairs a few feet in front of her. "Magicked?"

"What happened to you when the lights went out? The Charm. It was the spell that everyone's talking about –"

"The catalyst," Remus muttered under his breath as he recalled what James told him; as Dumbledore said. _Expect magic, Mr. Potter._ Then, he went out of trance. "Wait, how do you know so much about what happened then?"

Remus waited for Lucy to reply but apparently, his questions went a bit too much. Lucy stood up then turned for the door. "It's late."

"Wait!" called Remus, as he stood up and raced towards her. "Wait, Lucy!" But he was too mindful of his steps; afraid that she might be right – that he might be magicked. And he didn't want that. He didn't want any part of the spell. Even if the only thing it probably did to him was make him run faster.

To his satisfaction, Lucy paused as she held the door handle in her hand. "You know my name?"

"I—" he didn't continue, turning his head towards the windows as he heard mumbling sounds from outside. He wondered if she heard them too. But alas, when he turned his head back to where she was standing, she was gone.

"You're treading on dangerous grounds. Do you actually think that we are not aware of what you're trying to do?" came a voice that was so familiar, its taint of drawl should be patented.

_Malfoy?_ Remus thought, making his way through the dark and out onto the rooftop.

"There is nothing going on," came a second voice. There was also a hint of Slytherin in his voice – and familiar at that. Although he couldn't really tell for sure.

Remus leaned over the balustrade to verify if he was really hearing Malfoy and another Slytherin, at least. But he couldn't tell their faces because they were standing behind shadows. Although, this time, he knew that there were three of them.

"Don't even try to pretend, Black." _Black?_ Remus' ears perked up, and confirmed that indeed it was Regulus when Regulus' face was exposed to a bit of light for a split second. "People talk," said the third voice again. It definitely was not a Slytherin, Remus thought, as his tone did not have that particular quality they get when exposed to too much Slytherin dialogue.

"_People?_ Suddenly they qualify as humans now?" said Regulus.

Malfoy sniggered, although he still sounded like a snake more than anything. "You should know where your loyalties lie, Black."

Regulus straightened his coat. "I know where I stand. And I know what I'm doing," he said, turning around to walk away.

But Malfoy grabbed him by the arm and whispered although imposingly, "Don't start cleaning your hands now. You _are_ one of us," then left.

__

~*~*~*~

you better run like the devil, 'cause they're never gonna leave you alone! you better hide up in the alley, 'cause they're never gonna find you a home! -- my chemical romance, "house of wolves"


End file.
